The Library of
Original Sources
University Edition
TA HOHA
uiuo'A sAi \0
Edited by
r.i jVrM>
Dr. .Oliver J. Thatcher
formerly head ftf til* HUtory
Ucpmt to^nt. rnir»r.nj -I ''. ,..-,,
.\Mtot«d by *••» llMiCto* HUB* I
Bwrop«»0 and Aivvficni AclK>*«r«
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TRAJAN'S ARCH AT BKNEVENTO
The arch is tht contribution of the Humana to architecture.
The Library of
Original Sources
The Ideas that have influenced civili/.i-
tion, in the original documents — translated
University Edition
Edited by
Dr. Oliver J. Thatcher
formerly head of the History
Department, University of Chicago
Assisted by more than One Hundred
European and American Scholars.
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EDITOR'S ACKNOWLEDGMENT
ALTHOUGH THB EDITOR only is responsible for the matter
included in this set of books, yet he has been greatly assisted by the
suggestions he has received from specialists in their own fields. As
the editing of the last volumes is not yet finished, it is impossible to
give full credit for such advice, but the editor takes this opportunity
to acknowledge the important counsel or additional suggestions
received from:
A. H. 8AYCB, LL. D., D. D.,
PROPBSSOR OP A88YRIOLOGY, QUEEN'S COLLEGE, OXFORD UNIVERSITY.
CRAWFORD H. TOY, A. M., LL. D.,
PROFESSOR OP ORIENTAL LANGUAGES, HARVARD UNIVERSITY.
WALTER MILLER, A. M.,
PROFESSOR OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY,
THB LBLAND STANFORD JUNIOR UNIVERSITY
HENRY RDSHTON PAIRCLOUGH, PH. D ,
PROFESSOR OF CLASSICAL LITBRATCRE,
THB LBLAND STANFORD JUNIOR UNIVERSITY.
PRANK FROST ABBOTT, PH. D.,
PRCFBS8OR OP LATIN, UNIVERSITY OP CHICAGO.
JOHN CAREW ROLFE, PH. D.,
PROFESSOR OF LATIN. UNIVERSITY OP MICHIGAN.
DANA C. MONRO, A. M.,
DEPARTMENT OP HISTORY, UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA.
EDWARD G. BOURNE, PH. D.,
PROFESSOR OP HISTORY, YALB UNIVERSITY.
FERDINAND SCHWILL, PH. D.,
DEPARTMENT OP MODERN HISTORY. UNIVERSITY OP CHICAGO.
HARRY BURNS HUTCHINS, LL. D.,
DEAN OP THB DBPARTMBNT OP LAW, UNIVERSITY OP MICHIGAN.
WILLIAM H. WELCH, M. D., LL. D.,
DBAN OF THB MEDICAL FACULTY. JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY.
THEODORE WILLIAM RICHARDS, PH. D.,
DEPARTMENT OF CHEMISTRY. HARVARD UNIVERSITY.
PAUL REINSCH, PH. D.,
DBPARTMBNT OP POLITICAL SCIENCE, UNIVERSITY OP WISCONSIN.
H. H. MANCHESTER, A. B.,
MANAGING EDITOR FOR THB ROBERTS-MANCHESTER PUBLISHING CO
ILLUSTRATIONS
VOLUME III.
PAGE
TRAJAN'S ARCH AT BENEVENTO Frontispiece
VICTORY OF SAMOTHRACE 5
ROMAN BRONZE PLATE 65
THE AMPHITHEATER AT ROME 192
TOMB OF CAECILIA METELLA 241
VENUS DE MILO 285
TEMPLE OF VESTA 327
TABLE OF CONTENTS
VOLUME III.
INSTITUTIONS 5
THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE ROMAN LAW AND CONSTITUTION 5
1. Appian's Review of the Roman Civil Struggles;
2. The Origin of Roman Law; 3. Fragments of
the Laws of the Twelve Tables; 4. The Right of
Appeal and the Acquisition by the Plebs of Legislative
Authority; 5. The Canuleian Law; 6. Support
of the Army; 7. The Tribune; 8. Censors; 9.
The Licinian Law; 10. The Publilian Law; u.
The Olgulnian Law; 12. The Praetors; 13. The
Questors; 14. The Hortensian Law; 15. The Ap-
pian Road; 16. The Ovinian Law; 17. Sumptu-
ary Laws; 18. Senatus Consultum de Bacchanali-
bus; 19. The Gracchi; 20. Mismanagement of
the Provinces; 21. The Julian Law; 22. The
Etruscans and Umbrians Admitted to Roman Citizen-
ship; 23. Lex Plautia; 24. The Cornelian Judic-
iary Laws; 25. The Change in Government from
a Republic to an Empire; 26. Elections Taken from
the People and Given to the Senate; 27. Vespasian's
Law Concerning the Empire ; 28. Nerva on the Hu-
mane Care of Indigent Children; 29. "Municipia"
and "Colonies"; 30. Carcalla Extends Roman Cit-
izenship to All the Inhabitants of the Empire; 31.
Reforms of Diocletian.
THE INSTITUTES OF JUSTINIAN 100
ROME AT THE END OF THE PUNIC WARS (Bv POLYBIUS) 166
An Analysis of the Roman Government 166
Roman Military Institutions 172
Rome and Carthage i8£
THE GROWTH OF LUXURY 193
The Public Grounds for the Overthrow of the Republic 193
Luxury in the Time of Tiberius 194
Extravagance in the Time of Nero 197
Rome in the Fourth Century 202
CICERO 215
PRINCIPLES OF LAW 216
THE BEST FORMS OF GOVERNMENT 228
SCIPIO'S DREAM 233
THE CONTEMPT OF DEATH 241
LUCRETIUS 262
PRINCIPLES OF THE ATOMIC THEORY 263
ON IMMORTALITY 275
GRAECO-ROMAN SCIENCE 286
PLINY THE ELDER
SCIENTIFIC IDEAS OF THE TIMES
An Account of the World and its Elements
The Inventors of Various Things
QUINTILIAN 31 r
THE IDEAL EDUCATION 312
PHILO JUDAEUS 355
THE CREATION OF THE WORLD 355
PRE-CHRISTIAN ASCETICS 364
PLUTARCH 37o
THE TRAINING OF CHILDREN 370
EPICTETUS 392
DISCOURSES 392
MARCUS AURELIUS 406
*
THOUGHTS 407
THE DEVEUX *ENT
K, dJAHHTOtyAS ~iO YHU'IJU
had never seen. It "^\ ^ ^
conquest and to lift up the >
ing to them her la\vs am r-
I
L ADRIAN'S REVIEW nf 1H1-: ROMAX
The Roman plebs arvl senate had many co
other about the passing of laws, the abrogation of
the elections of magistrates. But tin
.. : .
i bin the law, whi
ard for each oil
• bs were setting
>>f the a;-
was called the Sacred Mr
VICTORY OF SAMOTHRACE
In the Louvre.
PROBABLY the Nike made to commemorate the naval victory won l>y
Demetrius over Ptolemy in 306 B. C. Conceived as poised on the prow
of a ship. The fragments were found in 1863. The author is unknown.
INSTITUTIONS
THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE ROMAN LAW
AND CONSTITUTION
ROME PRODUCED A SYSTEM OF LAWS the equal of which the world
had never seen. It was her great work to build up a vast empire by
conquest and to lift up the conquered peoples to her level by impart-
ing to them her laws and civilization. Her body of law was her great-
est legacy to the world. The first thirty-one subjects treated by the
following fragments are intended to give some idea of her legal and
constitutional development. The next selection, the Institutes of Jus-
tinian, still used as a text book in law schools, properly finds a place
here as the final statement and discussion of Roman law.
I. APPIAN'S REVIEW OF THE ROMAN CONTENTIONS
The Roman plebs and senate had many contentions with each
other about the passing of laws, the abrogation of debts, the allotment
of lands, or the elections of magistrates. But these civil contests did
not bring them into actual warfare. They were only disagreements and
struggles within the law, which they settled by reciprocal compromises
with great regard for each other. They got into such a contest at one
time when the plebs were setting out for war, but they did not make
use of the arms in their hands, but withdrew to the hill that henceforth
was called the Sacred Mount. Even at this time no harm was done, but
6 INSTITUTIONS
they established a magistrate for their protection and called him the
tribune of the plebs, to act as an offset to the consuls, who were
appointed by the senate, in order that the political power should not
rest entirely with the senate. From this sprung even greater ani-
mosity, and the magistrates became more and more bitterly opposed to
each other, while the senate and plebs arrayed themselves with them,
each thinking to succeed against the other by increasing the power of
its own magistrates. Amongst such struggles, Marcius Coriolanus,
after being unjustly banished, found shelter with the Volsci and brought
war upon his own country.
This, however, is the only instance of resort to violence that can
be found in these ancient contentions and this was inaugurated by an
exile. The sword was never brought into the assembly and there were
no political murders until Tiberius Gracchus fell, the first victim to civil
r edition, while acting as tribune and introducing new laws; many
others, also, that were gathered with him at the Capitol, were killed
about the temple. The struggle did not end with this infamous deed.
The two sides again and again came into open strife, often with
daggers, and at times some one acting as tribune, or praetor, or consul,
or some one standing for such offices, or otherwise eminent, would be
killed in a temple, or assembly, or the forum. An almost constant
reign of disgraceful disorder followed along with a scandalous disre-
gard for law and justice. As the commotion developed, open rebellion
against the government and important armed invasions against the
state itself were entered into by exiles, or criminals, or by contestants
for some office or military command. Factional leaders, looking to
supreme power, seized various districts, some of them refusing to dis-
band the forces given to them by the people, others mustering troops
against one another on their own account and without public sanction.
If one of them got possession of the city, the others would bring war,
nominally against him, but really against their common city. They
would attack it like a foreign foe. Merciless massacres of the citizens
were committed. Some men were proscribed, others exiled, property
was confiscated, and some even fiendishly tortured.
Nothing disgraceful was refrained from until about fifty years after
the death of Gracchus, Cornelius Sulla, one of the factional chiefs,
curing one malady with another, made himself ruler of the city for
an indefinite time. Such magistrates had been previously called dic-
tators, and the office, established in the greatest crises for six months
only, had long since fallen into abeyance. Sulla became dictator for
INSTITUTIONS 7
life, though perfunctorily elected, really through force and coercion.
In spite of this he became gorged with the absolute power, and, so
far as I know, was the first man that, holding supreme command, had
the courage to lay it down of his own accord and declare himself willing
to account for his stewardship to any not satisfied with it. And thus
for quite a time, he used to walk to the forum in the sight of all as
a private citizen and return home without being molested, so great awe
of his rule still remained in the memories of the onlookers, or so great
was their amazement at his laying it aside. They may have been
ashamed to ask him for an accounting, or perhaps believed that his
dictatorship had been a good thing for the state, or were well-disposed
toward him in some other way. At all events, there was a pause in the
factional struggles for a brief time during Sulla's life and some recom-
pense for the mischief he had wrought. After his death the civil strug-
gles sprung forth anew and lasted until Gaius Caesar, who had had
the government of Gaul for years, by appointment, was ordered to
relinquish his command. He claimed this was not the desire of the
senate, but of his opponent, Pompey, who commanded the army in
Italy, and was intriguing to depose him. So he sent overtures either
that they should keep their forces so that neither would have to fear
the hostility of the other, or that Pompey also should disband his troops
and live as a private citizen before the law, the same as himself. When
both alternatives were refused, he marched from Gaul against Pompey,
who was in Roman territory, entered it, sent him flying, and pursued
him to Egypt. When Pompey had been killed by the Egyptians, Caesar
turned to the conditions in Egypt and tarried there until he had
arranged for the succession to the throne. After this he came back
to Rome. As he had conquered in war his chief opponent who had
been surnamed the Great, because of his illustrious military achieve-
ments, Caesar now ruled openly, no one daring to oppose him in any
way, and was elected dictator for life, the first since Sulla. Once
more civil strife stopped, until Brutus and Cassius, envying his absolute
supremacy, and wishing to bring back the institutions of their fathers,
assassinated this most popular of men, and the best versed in the art
of government, in the senate. The populace deeply mourned him.
They hunted the city for his slayers. They buried him in the center
of the forum and over his funeral pile built a temple, sacrificing to him
as a god.
Civil war now broke forth again, more serious than ever before,
and grew to enormous proportions. Massacres, banishments, and
8 INSTITUTIONS
proscriptions, both of the senators and so-called knights, embracing
large numbers of both classes, followed, the factional chiefs (when
uniting) giving up the enemies of each to him, and, to this end,
sparing not even their friends and brothers; so much is the hatred
of foes stronger than the love of kindred. Thus, in the progress of
affairs, the Roman empire was divided, as if private property, among
three men, Antony, Lepidus, and he that was first called Octavius,
but afterwards Caesar, from his relationship to the other Caesar and
his adoption in the will. Soon after this partition they began to
quarrel among themselves, as was to be expected, and Octavius, who
was superior in intellect and ability, despoiled Lepidus of Africa, which
had fallen to him, and then, as the result of the fight at Actium, seized
from Antony all of the provinces lying between Syria and the Adriatic
gulf. Upon this, while the whole world was amazed at these marvel-
ous manifestations of power, he sailed to Egypt and took possession
of that country, the most ancient and at that time the strongest posses-
sion of the successors of Alexander, and the only one needed to round
out the Roman Empire as it now stands. Because of these feats he was
at once raised to the dignity of a god, even though still living, and
was the first to be thus designated by the Romans, being called by
them Augustus. He took upon himself a jurisdiction over the country
and subject peoples like Caesar's, and even more absolute than Caesar's ;
not needing any form of election or sanction, or even the show of it.
His rule being made stronger through time and custom, and, as he
himself succeeded in everything and was honored by all, he left a
lineage and dynasty that held the kingly power in the same way after
him. Thus, out of multitudinous civil dissensions, the Roman state
passed into permanency and a monarchy. — Appian Civil Wars, Int.
INSTITUTIONS
II. THE ORIGIN OF ROMAN LAW
It seems to us necessary to set forth the origin and development of
the law itself. Now in the beginning of our city the people were living
without fixed principle or definite law, and all tilings were governed
by the kings out of hand. Later, when the city had grown to some
extent, it is related that Romulus himself divided the people into thirty
divisions, which he called curiae, because he managed the government
(cMram) of the state by means of the counsels of these divisions; and
thus he himself gave to the people certain laws that were accepted by
the curiae. The later kings also gave laws which are all found written
in the book of Sextus Papirius. This book is called the Papirian Civil
Law, not because Papirius of himself added anything thereto, but be-
cause he brought together and arranged the laws previously passed
without system. Then when the kings were driven out by the law of
the tribunes, all these laws fell into disuse, and the Roman people
again began to live under uncertain rule and general custom rather
than by statute law, which state of affairs lasted nearly twenty years.
Later, in order that this should not keep up longer, it was deemed
best by all that ten men should be appointed by whom laws should be
sought from the Greek cities and the city be founded on law. — Justin-
ian's Digest, 533 A .D., I. 2.
III. FRAGMENT OF THE LAWS OF THE TWELVE TABLES
451—449 B. c.
1. I. If anyone summons a man before the magistrate, he must
go. If the man summoned does not go, let the one summoning him
call the bystanders to witness and then take him by force. If he
shirks or runs away, let the summoner lay hands on him. If illness
or old age is the hindrance, let the summoner provide a team. He
need not provide a covered carriage with a pallet unless he chooses.
2. Let the protector of a landholder be a landholder ; for one of
the proletariat, let anyone that cares to be protector.
3. When the litigants settle their case by compromise, let the
magistrate announce it. If they do not compromise, let them state each
his own side of the case, in the comitium (public meeting) of the forum,
V 3-1
10 INSTITUTIONS
before noon. Afterwards let them talk it out together, while both are
present. After noon, in case either party has failed to appear, let the
magistrate pronounce judgment in favor of the one who is present. If
both are present the trial may last until sunset but no later.
II. 2. He whose witness has failed to appear may summon him
by loud calls before his house every third (perhaps second) day.
III. i. One who has confessed a debt, or against whom judg-
ment has been pronounced, shall have thirty days to pay it in. After
that forcible seizure of his person is allowed. The creditor shall bring
him before the magistrate. Unless he pays the amount of the judg-
ment or some one in the presence of the magistrate interferes in his
behalf as protector the creditor so shall take him home and fasten him
in stocks or fetters. He shall fasten him with not less than fifteen
pounds of weight or, if he choose, with more. If the prisoner choose,
he may furnish his own food. If he does not, the creditor must give
him a pound of meal daily ; if he choose he may give him more.
2. On the third market day let them divide his body among them.
If they cut more or less than each one's share it shall be no crime.
3. Against a foreigner the right in property shall be valid forever.
IV. i. If a father sell his son three times, the son shall be free
from his father.
2. As a man has provided in his will in regard to his money and
the care of his property, so let it be binding. If he has no heir and dies
intestate, let the nearest agnate have the inheritance. If there is no
agnate, let the members of his gens have the inheritance.
3. If one is mad but has no guardian, the power over him and
his money shall belong to his agnates and the members of his gens.
VI. I. When one makes a bond and a conveyance of property,
as he has made formal declaration so let it be binding.
3. A beam that is built into a house or a vineyard trellis one may
not take from its place.
VII. i. Let them keep the road in order. If they have not
paved it, a man may drive his team where he likes.
VIII. 2. If one has maimed a limb and does not compromise
with the injured person, let there be retaliation. If one has broken a
bone of a freeman with his hand or with a cudgel, let him pay a penalty
of three hundred coins. If he has broken the bone of a slave, let him
pay one hundred and fifty coins. If one is guilty of insult, the penalty
shall be twenty-five coins.
INSTITUTIONS 11
3. If one is slain while committing theft by night, he is rightly
slain.
4. If a patron shall have devised any deceit against his client, let
him be accursed.
5. If one shall permit himself to be summoned as a witness, or has
been a weigher, if he does not give his testimony, let him be noted as
dishonest and incapable of acting again as witness.
X. I. None is to bury or burn a corpse in the city.
3. The women shall not tear their faces nor wail on account of the
funeral.
5. If one obtains a crown himself, or if his chattel does so because
of his honor and valor, if it is placed on his head, or the head of his
parents, it shall be no crime. TRANSLATED BY NINA E. WESTON.
CICERO ON THE TWELVE TABLES
"Though all the world exclaim against me, I will say what I think :
that single little book of the Twelve Tables, if any one look to the foun-
tains and sources of laws, seems to me, assuredly, to surpass the libra-
ries of all the philosophers, both in weight of authority, and in plenitude
of utility. And if our country has our love, as it ought to have in the
highest degree — our country, I say of which the force and natural at-
traction is so strong, I say, that one of the wisest of mankind preferred
his Ithaca, fixed, like a little nest, among the roughest of rocks, to im-
mortality itself — with what affection ought we to be warmed towards
such a country as ours, which, pre-eminently above all other countries,
is the seat of virtue, empire, and dignity? Its spirit, customs, and dis-
cipline ought to be our first objects of study, both because our country
is the parent of us all, and because as much wisdom be thought to have
been employed in framing such laws, as in establishing so vast and
powerful an empire. You will receive also this pleasure and delight
from the study of the law, that you will then most readily comprehend
how far our ancestors excelled other nations in wisdom, if you compare
our laws with those of their Lycurgus, Draco, and Solon. It is indeed
incredible how undigested and almost ridiculous is all civil law, except
our own ; on which I am accustomed to say much in my daily conversa-
tion when I am praising the wisdom of our countrymen above that of
all other men, and especially of the Greeks. For these reasons have I
declared, Scaevola, that the knowledge of the civil law is indispensable
to those who would become accomplished orators. — Cicero, De Oratory
1.44-
12 INSTITUTIONS
IV. THE RIGHT OF APPEAL AND THE ACQUISITION BY
THE PLEBS OF LEGISLATIVE AUTHORITY
THE VALERIAN LAW, 509 B. C. THE VALERIAN AND HORATIAN LAWS,
449 B. C. THE PORCIAN LAW (3RD CENTURY B. C.)
THE VALERIAN LAW
509 B, c.
XXXI Therefore, when that admirable constitution of
Romulus had lasted steadily about two hundred and forty years (text
missing). The whole of that law was abolished. In this humor, our
ancestors banished Collatimis, in spite of his innocence, because of the
suspicion that attached to his family, and all the rest of the Tarquins,
on account of the unpopularity of their name. In the same humor,
Valerius Publicola was the first to lower the fasces before the people,
when he spoke in the assembly of the people. He also had the materials
of his house conveyed to the foot of Mount Velia, having observed that
the commencement of his edifice on the summit of this hill, where King
Tullius had once dwelt, excited the suspicions of the people.
It was the same man, who in this respect pre-eminently deserved
the name of Publicola, who carried in favor of the people the first law
received in the Comitia Centuriata, that no magistrate should sentence
to death or scourging a Roman citizen who appealed from his authority
to the people. And the pontifical books attest that the right of appeal
had existed, even against the decision of the Icings. Our augural books
affirm the same thing. And the Twelve Tables prove, by a multitude
of laws, that there was a right of appeal from every judgment and
penalty. Besides, the historical fact that the decemviri who compiled
the laws were created with the privilege of judging without appeal,
sufficiently proves that the other magistrates had not the same power.
And a consular law, passed by Lucius Valerius Politus and Marcus
Horatius Barbatus, men justly popular for promoting union and con-
cord, enacted that no magistrate should thenceforth be appointed with
authority to judge without appeal ; and the Pertian laws, the work of
three citizens of the name of Portius, as you are aware, added nothing
new to this edict but a penal sanction.
Therefore Publicola, having promulgated this law in favor of ap-
peal to the people, immediately ordered the axes to be removed from
the fasces, which the lictors carried before the consuls, and the next
INSTITUTIONS 18
day appointed Spnrius Lncretius for his colleague. And as the new
consul was the oldest of the two, Pnblicola ordered his lictors to pass
over to him ; and he was the first to establish the rule, that each of the
consuls should be preceded by the lictors hi alternate months, that there
should be no greater appearance of imperial insignia among the free
people than they had witnessed in the days of their kings. Thus, in
my opinion, he proved himself no ordinary man-, as, by so granting the
people a moderate degree of liberty, he more easily maintained the
authority of the nobles.
Nor is it without reason that I have related to you these ancient
and almost obsolete events; but I wished to adduce my instances of
men and circumstances from illustrious persons and times, as it is to
such events that the rest of my discourse win be directed.
XXXII. At that period, then, the senate preserved the common-
wealth in such a condition, that though the people were really free,
yet few acts were passed by the people, but almost all, on the contrary,
by the authority, customs, and traditions of the senate. And over all
the consuls exercised a power — in time, indeed, only annual, but m
nature and prerogative completely royal.
The consuls maintained, with die greatest energy, that rule which
so much conduces to the power of our nobles and great men, that the
acts of the commons of the people shall not be binding, unless the
authority of the patricians has approved them. About the same period,
and scarcely ten years after the first consuls, we find the appointment
of the dictator in the person of Thus Lartius. And this new kind of
power, namely, the dictatorship, appears exceedingly similar to the
monarchical royalty. All his power, however, was vested in the
supreme authority of the senate, to which the people deferred ; and in
these times great exploits were performed in war by brave men invested
with the supreme command, whether dictators or consuls.
XXXIII. But as the nature of things necessarily brought it to
pass that the people, once freed from fts kings, should arrogate to itself
more and more authority, we observe that after a short interval of
only sixteen years in the consularship of Postumus Cominus and
Spurius Cassins, they attained their object; an event explicable, per-
haps, on no distinct principle, but nevertheless, in a manner, inde-
pendent of any distinct principle. For, recollect what I said, in com-
mencing our discourse, that if there exists not in the state a just dis-
tribution and subordination of rights, offices, and prerogatives, so as
to give sufficient domination to the chiefs, sufficient authority to the
v 14 INSTITUTIONS
counsel of the senators, and sufficient liberty to the people, this form
of the government cannot be durable.
For when the excessive debts of the citizens had thrown the state
into disorder, the people first retired to Mount Sacer, and next occu-
pied Mount Aventine. And even the rigid discipline of Lycurgus
could not maintain those restraints in the case of the Greeks. For in
Sparta itself, under the reign of Theopompus, the five magistrates
whom they term Ephori, and in Crete, ten whom they entitle Cosmi,
were established in opposition to the royal power, just as tribunes
were added among us to counterbalance the consular authority.
XXXIV. There might have been a method, indeed, by which
our ancestors could have been relieved from the pressure of debt, a
method with which Solon the Athenian, who lived at no very distant
period before, was acquainted, and which our senate did not neglect
when, in the indignation which the odious avarice of one individual
excited, all the bonds of the citizens were cancelled, and the right of
arrest for a while suspended. In the same way, when the plebeians
were oppressed by the weight of the expenses occasioned by public mis-
fortunes, a cure and remedy were sought for the sake of public security.
The senate, however, having forgot their former decision, gave an
advantage to the democracy; for, by the creation of two tribunes to
appease the sedition of the people, the power and authority of the
senate were diminished; which, however, still remained dignified and
august, inasmuch as it was still composed of the wisest and bravest
men, who protected their country both with their arms and with their
counsels ; whose authority was exceedingly strong and flourishing, be-
cause in honor they were as much before their fellow-citizens, as they
were inferior in luxuriousness, and, as a general rule, not superior to
them in wealth. And their public virtues were the more agreeable to
the people, because even in private matters they were ready to serve
every citizen, by their exertions, their counsels, and their liberality.
XXXV. Such was the situation of the commonwealth, when the
quaestor impeached Spurius Cassius of being so much emboldened by
the excessive favor of the people, as to endeavor to make himself master
of monarchical power. And, as you have heard, his own father, having
said that he had found that his son was really guilty of this crime,
condemned him to death at the instance of the people. About fifty-
four years after the first consulate, Spurius Tarpeius and Aulus Ater-
nius very much gratified the people by proposing, in the Comitia Cen-
turiata, the substitution of fines instead of corporal punishments.
INSTITUTIONS 15
Twenty years afterwards, Lucius Popirius and Publius Pinarius, the
censors, having by a strict levy of fines confiscated to the state the
entire flocks and herds of many private indivdiuals, a light tax on the
cattle was substituted for the law of fines in the consulship of Caius
Julius and Publius Papirius.
XXXVI. But, some years previous to this, at a period when
the senate possessed the supreme influence, and the people were sub-
missive and obedient, a new system was adopted. At that time both
the consuls and tribunes of the people abdicated their magistracies, and
the decemviri were appointed, who were invested with great authority,
from which there was no appeal whatever, so as to exercise the chief
domination, and to compile the laws. After having composed, with
much wisdom and equity, the Ten Tables of laws, they nominated as
their successors in the ensuing year other decemviri, whose good faith
and justice do not deserve equal praise. One member of this college,
however, merits our highest commendation. I allude to Caius Julius,
who declared respecting the nobleman, Lucius Sestius, in whose cham-
ber a dead body had been exhumed under his own eyes, that though
as decemvir he held the highest power without appeal, he still required
bail, because he was unwilling to neglect that admirable law which
permitted no court but the Comitia Centuriata to pronounce final sen-
tence on the life of a Roman citizen.
XXXVII. A third year followed under the authority of the same
decemvirs, and still they were not disposed to appoint their successors.
In a situation of the commonwealth like this, which, as I have often
repeated, could not be durable, because it had not an equal operation
with respect to all the ranks of the citizens, the whole public power
was lodged in the hands of the chiefs and decemvirs of the highest
nobility, without the counterbalancing authority of the tribunes of the
people, without the sanction of any other magistracies, and without
appeal to the people in the case of a sentence of death or scourging.
Thus, out of the injustice of these men, there was suddenly pro-
'duced a great revolution, which changed the entire condition of the
government ; for they added two tables of very tyrannical laws, and
though matrimonial alliances had always been permitted, even with
foreigners, they forbade by the most abominable and inhuman edict,
that any marriages should take place between the nobles and the com-
mons— an order which was afterwards abrogated by the decree of
Canuleius. Besides, they introduced into all their political measures
corruption, cruelty, and avarice. And indeed the story is well known,
16 INSTITUTIONS
and celebrated in many literary compositions, that a certain Decimus
Virginius was obliged, on account of the libidinous violence of one of
these decemvirs, to stab his virgin daughter in the midst of the forum.
—Cicero, De Re Publico, Bk. II.
VALERIAN AND HORATIAN LAWS
449 B. c.
The consuls, L. Valerius Politus and M. Horatius Barkatus de-
creed certain laws in the assemblies of the centuries (the patricians
indeed were much incensed at this, but for very shame dared not
oppose them), some of which there is no need for me to write, but
among them was one, "which commanded, that the laws which had
been passed by the people assembled in tribes should be binding equally
on all Romans, and should have the same force as those passed in the
assemblies of the centuries : if anyone annulled such a law, or trans-
gressed it, on being convicted of the crime, he should be punished with
death, and his goods should be confiscated." — Dionysius Halicarnassus
(died 7 B. c., about 60 years of age), XL 45.
Then through an interrex Lucius Valerius and Marcus Horatius
were elected consuls, who immediately entered on their office; whose
consulship was popular without any actual injury to the patricians,
though not without their displeasure ; for whatever provision was made
for securing the liberty of the commons, that they considered to be a
diminution made in their own power. First of all, when it was as it
were a point in controversy, whether patricians were bound by regula-
tions enacted in an assembly of the commons, they proposed a law in
the assembly of the centuries, that whatever the commons ordered col-
lectively, should bind the entire people; by which law a most keen-
edged weapon was given to motions introduced by tribunes. Then
another law made by a consul concerning the right of appeal, a singular
security to liberty, and subverted by the decemviral power, they not
only restore, but guard it also for the time to come, by enacting a new
law, "that no one should appoint any magistrate without a right of
appeal ; if any person should so elect, it would be lawful and right that
he be put to death; and that such killing should not be deemed a
capital offence." And when they had sufficiently secured the commons
by the right of appeal on the one hand, by tribunitian aid on the other,
they renewed for the tribunes themselves (the privilege) that they
should be held sacred and inviolable, the memory of which matter had
INSTITUTIONS 17
now been almost lost, reviving certain ceremonies which had been long
disused ; and they rendered them inviolable both by the religious insti-
tution, as well as by a law, enacting, that "whoever should offer injury
to tribunes of the people, aediles, judges, decemvirs, his person should
be devoted to Jupiter, and his property be sold at the temple of Ceres,
Liber and Liberia." Commentators deny that any person is by this
law sacrosanct ; but that he who may do an injury to any of them, is
deemed to be devoted; therefore that an aedile may be arrested and
carried to prison by superior magistrates, which, though it be not
expressly warranted by law, for an injury is done to a person to whom
it is not lawful to do an injury considered as sacred ; that the tribunes
were sacred and inviolable by an ancient oath of the commons, when
first they created that office. There have been persons who supposed
that by this same Horatian law provision was made for the consuls
also and the praetors, because they were elected under the same
auspices as the consuls ; for that a consul was called a judge. Which
interpretation is refuted, because at this time it was not yet the custom
for the consul to be styled judge, but the praetor. These were the
laws proposed by the consuls. It was also regulated by the same con-
suls, that decrees of the senate should be deposited with the aediles of
the commons in the temple of Ceres ; which before that used to be sup-
pressed and altered at the pleasure of the consuls. Marcus Duilius
then, tribune of the commons, proposed to the people, and the people
ordered, that "whoever left the people without tribunes, and whoever
caused a magistrate to be elected without the right of appeal, should
be punished with stripes and beheaded." All these matters, though
against the feelings of the patricians, passed off without opposition
from them, because no severity was aimed at any particular individual.
— Livy, III. 55.
(The Porcian Law is mentioned in Cicero, De Oratore, XXI., given
under the Valerian Law, and in Livy, X. 9, under selection XI. below.)
V. THE CANULEIAN LAW
445 a- c.
Marcus Genucius and Caius Curtius followed these as consuls.
The year was disturbed both at home and abroad. For at the com-
mencement of the year Caius Canuleius, tribune of the people, proposed
18 INSTITUTIONS
a law concerning the intermarriage of the patricians and commons ; by,
which the patricians considered that their blood would be contaminated,
and the privileges of birth would be confounded; and a hint at first
lightly suggested by the tribunes, that it should be lawful that one of
the consuls should be elected from the commons, afterwards proceeded
so far, that the nine tribunes proposed a bill, "that the people should
have the power of electing the consuls, whether they wished, from
the commons or the patricians." But they thought that if that were
done, the supreme authority would not only be shared with the lowest
ranks, but be wholly transferred from the nobility to the commons.
With joy therefore the patricians heard that the people of Ardea had
revolted in consequence of the injustice of the taking away their land,
and that the Veientians had laid waste the frontiers of the Roman
territory, and that the Volscians and ^Equans murmured on account
of the fortifying of Verrugo ; so much did they prefer an unsuccessful
war to an ignominious peace. These tidings therefore being received
and with exaggerations, in order that during the din of so many wars
the tribunitian proceedings might be suspended, they order the levies
to be held, preparations to be made for war and arms with the utmost
activity ; with more energy, if possible, than had been used in the con-
sulship of Titus Quintius. Then Caius Canuleius declared aloud in
brief terms in the senate, that "the consuls wished in vain to divert the
commons from attention to the new laws ; that they never should hold
a levee while he lived, before the commons had first ratified the laws
proposed by him and his colleagues ;" and he instantly summoned them
to an assembly.
Both the consuls incited the senate against the tribune, and the
tribune the people against the consuls at one and the same time. The
consuls denied "that tribunitian frenzies could any longer be endured ;
that they were now come to a crisis ; that more hostilities were being
stirred up at home than abroad. That this happened not more through
the fault of the commons than of the patricians ; nor more through that
of the tribunes than of the consuls. That the matter for which there
was a reward in the state thrived always with the greatest proficiency ;
that thus it was that men became meritorious in peace, thus in war.
That at Rome the highest reward was for sedition ; that had ever been
the source of honor both to individuals and to collective bodies. They
should remember in what condition they had received the majesty of
the senate from their forefathers, in what condition they were about to
transmit it to their children ; that, like the commons, they should have
INSTITUTIONS 19
it in their power to boast that it was improved in degree and in splen-
dor. That there was no end, nor would there be, so long as the pro-
moters of sedition were rewarded with honor in proportion as sedition
was successful. What and how important schemes Caius Canuleius
had set on foot ! that he was introducing confounding of family rank,
a disturbance of the auspices both public and private, that nothing may
remain pure, nothing uncontaminated ; that, all distinction being abol-
ished, no one might know either himself or those he belonged to. For
what other tendency had those promiscuous intermarriages, except that
intercourse between commons and patricians might be made common
after the manner of wild beasts ; so that of the offspring each may be
ignorant of what blood he may be, of what form of religion he was ;
that he may belong half to the patricians, half to the commons, not
being homogeneous even with himself? That it appeared not enough,
that all things divine and human should be confounded; that those
disturbers of the common people were now preparing to (seize) the
consulship ; and first that they sounded people's sentiments in mere con-
versation on the project of having one consul appointed from the com-
mons ; that now the proposition was brought forward, that the people
may appoint the consuls, whether they pleased from the patricians or
from the people; and that they would appoint no doubt every most
turbulent person. The Canuleii, therefore, and the Icilii would be
consuls. (They expressed a hope) that Jupiter, the best and greatest,
would not suffer the imperial majesty of the sovereign power to de-
scend to that; and that they would certainly die a thousand deaths
rather than such a disgrace should be incurred. They were certain that
their ancestors, could they have divined that the commons would be-
come not more placable to them, but more intractable, by making suc-
cessive demands still more unreasonable, after they had obtained the
first, would have rather submitted to any struggle, than have suffered
such laws to be saddled on them. Because it was then conceded to
them with respect to tribunes, the concession was made a second time.
There was no end of it ; tribunes of the commons and patricians could
not subsist in the same state ; either the one order or the other office
must be abolished ; and that a stop should be put to presumption and
temerity rather late than never. (Was it right) that they, by sowing
discord, should with impunity stir up the neighboring states against
us? and then prevent the state from arming and defending itself
against those evils which they may have brought on us ? and after they
have almost sent for the enemy, not suffer the armies to be levied
20 INSTITUTIONS
against the enemies? But Canuleius may have the audacity to declare
openly in the senate that, unless the patrician suffer the law proposed
by himself as victorious, to be enacted, he would prevent the levy from
being held. What else was this, but threatening that he would betray
his country; that he would suffer it to be attacked and captured? What
charge would that expression afford, not to the Roman commons, but
to the Volscians, ^quans, and the Venetians! would they not hope
that, under the generalship of Canuleius, they should be able to scale
the Capitol and citadel, if with the deprivation of privilege and majesty,
the tribunes should rob the patricians of their courage also? That the
consuls were prepared to act against the wicked schemes of their coun-
trymen, before they would act against the arms of the enemy."
Just when these matters were going on in the senate, Canuleius
thus declaimed in favor of his laws and against the consuls: "Fre-
quently even before now I think I have observed how much the patri-
cians despised you, Romans, how unworthy they deemed you to dwell
in the one city and within the same walls with them ; but on the present
occasion most clearly, in their having risen up so determinedly in oppo-
sition to those propositions of ours : in which what else do we do, but
remind them that we are their fellow citizens, and that though we
possess not the same power, we inhabit the same city? In the one we
demand intermarriage, a thing which is usually granted to neighbors
and foreigners : we have granted even to vanquished enemies the right
of citizenship, which is more than the right of intermarriage. In the
other we propose nothing new; we only reclaim and demand that
which is the people's; that the Roman people may confer honors on
whomsoever they may please. And what in the name of goodness is it
for which they embroil heaven and earth? why was almost an attack
made on me just now in the senate? why do they say they will not
restrain themselves from violence, and threaten that they will insult an
office, sacred and inviolable? Shall this.city no longer be able to stand,
and is the empire at stake, if the right of free suffrage is granted to
the Roman people, to confer the consulship on whomsoever they may
please, and if a plebeian, though he may be worthy of the highest
honor, is not precluded from the hope of attaining that honor? and is
this of the same import, whether a plebeian be made a consul, as if any
one were to propose a slave or the son of a slave to be consul ? Do you
perceive in what contempt you live? they would take from you a par-
ticipation in this light, if it were permitted them. That you breathe,
that you enjoy the faculty of speech, that you possess the forms of
INSTITUTIONS 21
human beings excites their indignation. Nay, even, as I hope for
mercy, they say it is contrary to religion that a plebeian should
be made consul. I pray, though we are not admitted to the annals,
nor to the commentaries of the pontiffs, do we not know even those
things which strangers know ? that consuls have succeeded kings ? and
that they possess no privilege, no majesty which was not formerly in-
herent in kings ? Do you suppose that we ever heard it mentioned that
Numa Pompilius, who not only was not a patrician, but not even a
citizen of Rome, was sent for from the country of the Sabines by order
of the people, with the approbation of the senate, and that he was
made king at Rome? that afterwards Lucius Tarquinius, who was
not only not of Roman, but not even of Italian extraction, the son of
Damaratus of Corinth, an emigrant from Tarquinii, was made king,
even whilst the sons of Ancus still lived? that after him Servius
Tullius, the son of a captive woman of Corniculum, with his father
unknown, his mother a slave, attained the throne by his ability and
merit ? For what shall I say of Titus Tatius the Sabine, whom Romu-
lus himself, the founder of our city, admitted into partnership of the
throne? Accordingly, whilst no class of persons is disdained, in whom
conspicuous merit may be found, the Roman dominion increased. You
do well to be dissatisfied now with a plebeian consul, when your an-
cestors disdained not foreigners as kings, and when, even after the
expulsion of kings, the city was not shut against foreign merit. After
the expulsion of the kings, we certainly admitted the Claudian family
from the Sabine country not only into citizenship, but even into the
number of the patricians. Can a man from a foreigner be made a
patrician, then a consul? shall a Roman citizen, if he belong to the
commons, be precluded from all hope of the consulate? Do we then
deem it impossible that a man of the commons can be a person of
fortitude and activity, qualified to excel both in peace and war, like
to Numa, Lucius Tarquinius, and Servius Tullius? Or, shall such
appear, shall we not suffer him to meddle with the helm of govern-
ment? or shall we have consuls like the decemvirs, the most abandoned
of mortals, who were, however, all patricians, rather than like the best
of kings, though new men ?
"But (I may be told) no commoner has been consul since the
expulsion of the kings. What then ? ought no innovation to be intro-
duced? and what has not yet been practised, (and in a new state there
are many things not yet practised,) ought not even such measures, even
though they be useful, be adopted? During the reign of Romulus
22 INSTITUTIONS
there were no pontiffs, nor augurs: they were appointed by Numa
Pompilius. There was no census in the state nor the distribution of
centuries and classes; it was introduced by Servius Tullius: there
never had been consuls ; they were created after the expulsion of the
kings. Of a dictator neither the office nor the name had existed; it
commenced its existence among the senators. There were no tribunes
of the people, sediles, nor quaestors : it was resolved that those officers
should be appointed. Within the last ten years we both created decem-
virs for compiling laws, and we abolished them. Who can doubt but
that in a city doomed for eternal duration, increasing to an immense
magnitude, new civil offices, priesthoods, rights of families and of
individuals, may be established? This very matter, that there should
not be the right of intermarriage between patricians and commons, did
not the decemvirs introduce within the last few years to the utmost
injury of the commons, on a principle most detrimental to the public?
Can there be a greater or more marked insult, than that one portion of
the state, as if contaminated, should be deemed unworthy of inter-
marriage? What else is it than to suffer exile within the same walls,
actual rustication? They wish to prevent our being mixed with them
by affinity or consanguinity ; that our blood be not mingled with theirs.
What? if this cast a stain on that nobility of yours, which most of you,
the progeny of Albans or Sabines, possess, not in right of birth or
blood, but by co-optation into the patricians, having been elected either
by the kings, or after the expulsion of kings, by order of the people,
could ye not keep it pure by private regulations, by neither marrying
into the commons, and by not suffering your daughters or sisters to
marry out of the patricians. No one of the commons would offer vio-
lence to a patrician maiden ; such lust as that belongs to the patricians.
None of them would oblige any man against his will to enter into a
marriage contract. But really that such a thing should be prevented
by law, that the intermarriage of the patricians and plebeians should be
interdicted, that it is which is insulting to the commons. Why do you
not combine in enacting a law that there shall be no intermarriage
between rich and poor? That which has in all places and always been
the business of private regulations, that a woman might marry into
whatever family she has been engaged to, and that each man might
take a wife out of whatever family he had contracted with, that ye
shackle with the restraints of a most tyrannical law, by which ye sever
the bonds of civil society and split one state into two. Why do ye
not enact a law that a plebeian shall not dwell in the neighborhood of
INSTITUTIONS 23
a patrician? that he shall not go the same road with him? that he
shall not enter the same banquet with him? that he shall not stand
in the same forum? For what else is there in the matter, if a patrician
man wed a plebeian woman, or a plebeian a patrician? What right,
pray, is thereby changed ? the children surely go with the father. Nor
is there any thing which we seek from intermarriage with you, except
that we may be held in the number of human beings and fellow citizens,
nor is there any reason why ye contest the point, except that it delights
you to strive for insult and ignominy to us.
"In a word, whether is the supreme power belonging to the
Roman people, or is it yours? Whether by the expulsion of kings has
dominion been acquired for you or equal liberty for all? It is fitting
that the Roman people should be allowed to enact a law, if it please.
Or will ye decree a levy by way of punishment, according as each bill
shall be proposed ? and as soon as I, as tribune, shall begin to call the
tribes to give their votes, will you, forthwith, as consul, force the
younger men to take the military oath, and lead them out to camp?
and will you threaten the commons? will you threaten the tribune?
What, if you had not already twice experienced how little those threats
availed against the united sense of the people? Of course it was be-
cause you wished to consult for our interest, that you abstained from
force. Or was there no contest for this reason, that the party which
was the stronger was also the more moderate? Nor will there be any
contest now, Romans: they will try your spirit; your strength they
will not make trial of. Wherefore, consuls, the commons are prepared
to accompany you to these wars, whether real or fictitious, if, by restor-
ing the right of intermarriage, you at length make this one state; if
they can coalesce, be united and mixed with you by private ties ; if the
hope, if the access to honors be granted to men of ability and energy;
if it is lawful to be in a partnership and share of the government ; if,
what is the result of equal freedom, it be allowed in the distribution of
the annual offices to obey and to govern in their turns. If any one
shall obstruct these measures, talk about wars, multiply them by report ;
no one will give in his name, no one will take up arms, no one will
fight for haughty masters, with whom there is no participation of
honors in public, nor of intermarriage in private."
When both the consuls came forward into the assembly, and the
matter had changed from a long series of harangues to altercation, the
tribune, on asking why it was not right that a plebeian should be made
a consul, an answer was returned, truly perhaps, though by no means
24 INSTITUTIONS
expediently for the present contest, "that no plebeian could have the
auspices, and for this reason the decemvirs had prohibited the inter-
marriage, lest from uncertainty of descent the auspices might be
vitiated." The commons were fired with indignation at this above all,
because, as if hateful to the immortal gods, they were denied to be
qualified to take auspices. And now (as the commons both had a most
energetic supporter in the tribune, and they themselves vied with him
in perseverance) there was no end of the contentions, until the patri-
cians, being at length overpowered, agreed that the law regarding inter-
marriage should be passed, judging that by these means most probably
the tribunes would either give up altogether or postpone until after the
war the question concerning the plebeian consuls; and that in the
mean time the commons, content with the intermarriage-law (being
passed), would be ready to enlist. When Canuleius was now in high
repute by his victory over the patricians and by the favor of the com-
mons, the other tribunes being excited to contend for their bill, set to
work with all their might, and, the accounts regarding the war aug-
menting daily, obstruct the levy. The consuls, when nothing could be
transacted through the senate in consequence of the opposition of the
tribunes, held meetings of the leading men at their own houses. It was
becoming evident that they must concede the victory either to the
enemies or to their countrymen. Valerius and Horatius alone of the
consulars did not attend the meetings. The opinion of Caius Claudius
was for arming the consuls against the tribunes. The sentiments of
the Quintii, both Cincinnatus and Capitolinus, were averse to blood-
shed, and to violating (persons) whom by the treaty concluded with
the commons they had admitted to be sacred and inviolable. Through
these meetings the matter was brought to this, that they suffered
tribunes of the soldiers with consular authority to be elected from the
patricians and commons without distinction ; that with respect to the
election of consuls no change should be made ; and with this the tribunes
were content, as were also the commons. An assembly is now pro-
claimed for electing three tribunes with consular power. This being
proclaimed, forthwith whoever had contributed to promote sedition by
word or deed, more particularly men who had been tribunes, began to
solicit support and to bustle about the forum as candidates; so that
despair, in the first instance, of obtaining the honor, by reason of the
irritated state of the people's mind, then indignation at having to hold
the office with such persons, deterred the patricians; at length, how-
ever, being forced, they stood as candidates, lest they might appear to
INSTITUTIONS 2ft
have relinquished all share in the government. The result of this elec-
tion showed that the sentiments of persons in the struggle for liberty
and dignity are different from those they feel when the contest is laid
aside, the judgment being unbiased; for the people elected all patri-
cians as tribunes, content with this, that the plebeians had been taken
into account. Where could you now find in an individual such modera-
tion, disinterestedness, and elevation of mind, as was then displayed
by the entire people ?
In the three hundred and tenth year after the city of Rome was
built, for the first time military tribunes in the room of consuls enter
into office, Aulus Sempronius Atratinus, Lucius Atilius, Titus Claelius ;
in whose office the concord prevailing at home afforded peace also
abroad. — Livy, IV. 1-7.
VI. SUPPORT OF THE ARMY
PAYMENT OF TROOPS
ABOUT 406 B. c.
In the mean time it was determined that the military tribunes
should lead an army into the Volscian territory. Cneius Cornelius
alone was left at Rome. The three tribunes, when it became evident
that the Volscians had not established a camp any where, and that they
would not venture an engagement, separated into three different par-
ties to lay waste the country. Valerius makes for Antium, Cornelius
for Ecetrae. Wherever they came, they committed extensive devasta-
tions on the houses and lands, so as to separate the Volscians : Fabius,
without committing any devastation, proceeded to attack Anxur, which
was a principal object in view. Anxur is the town now called Tarra-
cinae ; a city built on a declivity leading to a morass : Fabius made a
feint of attacking it on that side. When four cohorts sent round under
Caius Servilius Ahala took possession of a hill which commanded the
city, they attacked the walls with a loud shout and tumult, from the
higher ground where there was no guard of defense. Those who were
defending the lower parts of the city against Fabius, astounded at this
tumult, afforded him an opportunity of applying the scaling ladders,
and every place soon became filled with the enemy and a dreadful
slaughter continued for a long time, indiscriminately of those who /led
and those who resisted, of the armed or unarmed. The vanquished
were therefore obliged to fight, there being no hope for those who gave
way, when a proclamation suddenly issued, that no persons except those
V 3-2
28 INSTITUTIONS
with arms in their hands should be injured, induced all the remaining
multitude voluntarily to lay down their arms; of whom two thousand
five hundred are taken alive. Fabius kept his soldiers from the spoil,
until his colleagues should come ; affirming that Anxur had been taken
by these armies also, who had diverted the other Volscian troops from
the defense of that place. When they came, the three armies plundered
the town, which was enriched with wealth of many years' accumula-
tion; and this generosity of the commanders first reconciled the com-
mons to the patricians. It was afterwards added, by a liberality to-
wards the people on the part of the leading men the most seasonable
ever shown, that before any mention should be made of it by the com-
mons or tribunes, the senate should decree that the soldiers should
receive pay out of the public treasury, whereas up to that period every
one had discharged that duty at his own expense.
It is recorded that nothing was ever received by the commons with
so much joy; that they ran in crowds to the senate-house, and caught
the hands of those coming out, and called them fathers indeed; ac-
knowledging that the result of such conduct was that no one would
spare his person or his blood, whilst he had any strength remaining, in
defense of a country so liberal. Whilst the prospect of advantage
pleased them, that their private property should remain unimpaired at
the time during which their bodies should be devoted and employed
for the interest of the commonwealth, it further increased their joy
very much, and rendered their gratitude for the favor more complete,
because it had been offered to them voluntarily, without ever having
been agitated by the tribunes of the commons, or made the subject of
a demand in their own conversations. The tribunes of the commons,
the only parties who did not participate in the general joy and har-
mony prevailing through the different ranks, denied "that this measure
would prove so much a matter of joy, or so honorable to the patricians,
as they themselves might imagine. That the measure as first sight was
better than it would prove by experience. For from what source was
that money to be raised, except by levying a tax on the people. That
they were generous to some therefore at the expense of others; and
even though others may endure it, those who had already served out
their time in the service, would never endure that others should serve
on better terms than they themselves had served ; and that these same
individuals should have to bear the expense of their own service, and
then that of others. By these arguments they influence a part of the
commons. At last, when the tax was now announced, the tribunes
INSTITUTIONS 27
publicly declared, that they would afford protection to any one who
should refuse to contribute his proportion for the pay of the soldiers.
The patricians persisted in supporting a matter so happily commenced.
They themselves were the first to contribute ; and because there was as
yet no coined silver, some of them conveying their weighed brass to
the treasury in wagons, rendered their contribution very showy. After
the senate had contributed with the utmost punctuality according to
their rated properties, the principal plebeians, friends of the nobility,
according to a concerted plan, began to contribute. And when the
populace saw these men highly applauded by the patricians, and also
looked up to as good citizens by men of the military age, scorning the
support of the tribunes, an emulation commenced at once about paying
the tax. And the law being passed about declaring war against the
Veientians, the new military tribunes with consular power marched to
Veii an army consisting in a great measure of volunteers. — Livy, IV.
59-60.
WINTER CAMPAIGNS
ABOUT 400 B. c.
Peace being established in every other quarter, the Romans and
Veientians were still in arms with such rancour and animosity, that it
was evident that ruin awaited the vanquished party. The elections in
the two states were conducted in very different methods. The Romans
augmented the number of military tribunes with consular power.
Eight, a number greater than on any previous occasion, were appointed,
Manius JEmilius Mamercinus a second time, Lucius Valerius Potitus a
third time, Appius Claudius Crassus, Marcus Quintilius Varus, Lucius
Julius lulus, Marcus Postumius Albinus. The Veientians, on the con-
trary, through disgust at the annual intriguing which was sometimes
the cause of dissensions, elected a king. That step gave offense to the
feelings of the states of Etruria, not more from their hatred of kingly
government than of the king himself. He had before this become
obnoxious to the nation by reason of his wealth and arrogance, because
he had violently broken off the performance of some annual games, the
omission of which was deemed an impiety ; when through resentment
of a repulse, because another had been preferred to him as a priest by
the suffrages of the twelve states, he suddenly carried off, in the middle
of the performance, the performers, of whom a great part were his
own slaves. The nation, therefore, "devoted beyond all others to reli-
gious performances, because they excelled in the method of conducting
28 INSTITUTIONS
them, passed a decree that aid should be refused to the Veientians, as
long as they should be subject to a king. All allusion to this decree
was suppressed at Veii through fear of the king, who would have con-
sidered the person by whom any such matter might be mentioned as a
leader of sedition, not as the author of an idle rumor. Although mat-
ters were announced to the Romans as being quiet hi Etmria, yet
because it was stated that this matter was being agitated in all their
meetings, they so managed their fortifications, that there should be
security on both sides; some were directed towards the city and the
sallies of the townsmen ; by means of others a front looking towards
Etruria was opposed to such auxiliaries as might happen to come from
there.
When the Roman generals conceived greater hopes from a block-
ade than from an assault, winter huts also, a thing quite new to the
Roman soldier, began to be built ; and their determination was to con-
tinue the war by wintering there. After an account of this was brought
to Rome to the tribunes of the people, who for a long time past had
found no pretext for exciting disturbances, they run forward into the
assembly, stir up the minds of the commons, saying that "this was the
motive for which pay had been established for the soldiers, nor had it
escaped their knowledge, that such a present from the enemies was
tainted with poison. That the liberty of the commons had been sold;
that their youth removed for ever, and exiled from the city and the
republic, did not now even yield to the winter and to the season of the
year, and visit their homes and private affairs. What could they sup-
pose was the cause for continuing the service without intermission?
That undoubtedly they should find none other than (the fear) lest any
thing might be done in furtherance of their interests by the attendance
of those youths in whom the entire strength of the commons lay. Be-
sides that they were harassed and worked much more severely than the
Veientians. For the latter spent the winter beneath their own roofs,
defending their city by strong walls and its natural situation, whilst
the Roman soldier, in the midst of toil and hardship, continued beneath
the covering of skins, overwhelmed with snow and frost, not laying
aside his arms even during the period of winter, which is a respite from
all wars by land and sea. Neither kings, nor those consuls, tyrannical
as they were before the institution of the tribunitian office, nor the
stern authority of the dictator, nor the overbearing decemvirs, ever
imposed such slavery as that they should perform unremitting military
service, which degree of regal power the military tribunes now exer-
INSTITUTIONS »
cised over the Roman commons. What would these men have done as
consuls or dictators, who have exhibited the picture of the proconsular
office so implacable and menacing? but that all this happened justly.
Among eight military tribunes there was no room even for one ple-
beian. Formerly the patricians filled up three places with the utmost
difficulty; now they went in file eight deep to take possession of the
various offices; and not even in such a crowd is any plebeian inter-
mixed ; who, if he did no other good, might remind his colleagues, that
it was freemen and fellow citizens, and not slaves, that constituted the
army, who ought to be brought back during winter at least to their
homes and roofs ; and to come and see at some part of the year their
parents, children, and wives, and to exercise the rights of freedom,
and to take part in electing magistrates. While they exclaimed in
these and such terms, they found in Appius Gatulius an opponent not
unequal to them, who had been left behind by his colleagues to check
the turbulence of the tribunes ; a man trained even from his youth in
contests with the plebeians; who several years before, as has been
mentioned, recommended the dissolution of the tribunitian power by
means of the protests of their colleagues.
Even already Appius was a match for the tribunes of the people
in the popular assemblies ; when suddenly a misfortune sustained before
Veii, from a quarter whence no one could expect it, both gave Appius
the superiority in the dispute, produced also a greater harmony between
the different orders, and greater ardor to carry on the siege of Veii
with more pertinacity. For when the trenches were now advanced to
the very city, and the machines were almost about to be applied to the
walls, whilst the works are carried on with greater assiduity by day,
than they are guarded by night, a gate was thrown open on a sudden,
and a vast multitude, armed chiefly with torches, cast fire about on all
sides; and after the lapse of an hour the flames destroyed both the
rampart and the machines, the work of so long a time, and great num-
bers of men, bearing assistance in vain, were destroyed by the sword
and by fire. When the account of this circumstance was brought to
Rome, it inspired sadness into all ranks ; into the senate anxiety and
apprehension, lest the sedition could no longer be withstood either in
the city or in the camp, and lest the tribunes of the commons should
insult over the commonwealth, as if vanquished by them; when on a
sudden, those who possessed an equestrian fortune, but to whom horses
had not been assigned by the public, having previously held a meeting
together, went to the senate ; and having obtained permission to speak.
30 INSTITUTIONS
promise that they will serve on their own horses. And when thanks
were returned to them by the senate in the most complimentary terms,
and the report of this proceeding spread through the forum and the
city, there suddenly ensues a concourse of the commons to the senate-
house. They say that "they are now of the pedestrian order, and they
proffered their services to the commonwealth, though not compelled
to serve, whether they wished to march them to Veii, or to any other
place. If they were led to Veii, they affirm, that they would not return
from thence, until the city of the enemy was taken." Then indeed
they with difficulty set bounds to the joy which now poured in upon
them ; for they were not ordered, as in the case of the horsemen, to be
publicly eulogized, the order for so doing being consigned to the magis-
trates, nor were they summoned into the senate-house to receive an
answer ; nor did the senate confine themselves within the threshold of
their house, but every one of them individuality with their voice and
hands testified from the elevated ground the public joy to the multitude
standing in the assembly; they declared that by that unanimity the
Roman city would be happy, and invincible and eternal; praised the
horsemen, praised the commons; extolled the day itself by their
praises; they acknowledged that the courtesy and kindness of the
senate was outdone. Tears flowed in abundance through joy both from
the patricians and commons ; until the senators being called back into
the house, a decree of the senate was passed, "that the military tribunes,
summoning an assembly, should return thanks to the infantry and
cavalry; and should state that the senate would be mindful of their
affectionate attachment to their country. But that it was their wish
that their pay should go on for those who had, out of their turn, under-
taken voluntary service. To the horsemen also a certain stipend was
assigned. Then for the first time the cavalry began to serve on their
own horses. This army of volunteers being led to Veii, not only
restored the works which had been lost, but also erected new ones.
Supplies were conveyed from the city with greater care than before;
lest any thing should be wanting for the accommodation of an army
who deserved so well. — Livy, V.
VII. THE TRIBUNES
ESTABLISHED ABOUT 494 B. C.
Then a commencement was made to treat of a reconciliation, and
INSTITUTIONS 31
among the conditions it was allowed, "that the commons should have
their own magistrates, with inviolable privileges, who should have the
power of bringing assistance against the consuls, and that it should not
be lawful for any of the patricians to hold that office." Thus two
tribunes of the commons were created, Caius Licinius and L. Albinus.
These created three colleagues for themselves. It is clear that among
these was Sicinius, the adviser of the sedition ; with respect to two, who
they were is not so clear. There are some who say, that only two
tribunes were elected on the sacred mount, and that there the devoting
law was passed. — Livy, II. 33.
CICERO ON THE TRIBUNATE
Marcus. These Greek philosophers made it a grand point of in-
quiry whether one magistrate should be appointed in each common-
wealth, to whom all the rest should be subordinate; which system, as
I understand, was what was decided on by our ancestors, after the
expulsion of the kings. But since the monarchial constitution which
was at first preferred was changed, not so much through any fault in
the monarchy, as through the vices of a monarch, it should seem that
the monarchy itself still subsists, and that nothing but the name of
king has been repudiated, if one magistrate is still to have authority
over all the rest.
It was not without reason, therefore, that Theopompus in Lace-
daemon qualified the power of the Spartan kings by the ephori, or that
we Romans qualify the power with such authority by law, that they
command all the other magistrates, except the tribunes, who were
created some time after, in order to hinder those events from recurring
which had taken place before. For the first diminution of the power
of the consuls was the creation of a magistrate who was not subject to
it. The next was, when this new magistrate gave his aid not only to
other magistrates, but even to private citizens, who refused obedience
to the consuls.
Quintus. You speak of a great evil; for since the office of the
tribunes of the people was established, the authority of the nobles has
declined, and the rule of the mob has gained strength.
Marcus. The case is not quite so bad as you think, my Quintus ;
for that power of the consuls inevitably appeared to the people not only
something too arrogant, but also too violent. But since wise and mod-
erate limitation has been imposed upon it, it diffuses law and justice to
all the citizens. (Text missing.)
32 INSTITUTIONS
* * *
Let us now come to the exposition of our legal maxims, before
stated ; and, to pass over that earlier portion whose propriety is almost
self-evident, let us notice that maxim which declares that soldiers
should endeavor to return home with unblemished honor. For to good
and innocent men, no prize so valuable as honor can be derived either
from our enemies or our friends.
That maxim is also plainly just, that nothing can be baser than for
a man to sue for an appointment as a legate, for any other interest
than that of his country. I say nothing of how those men conduct and
have conducted themselves, and their office or legate, pursue inherit-
ances for themselves, and bonds, and deeds. This is a fault which
must, perhaps, exist in mankind; but I ask if anything can be more
scandalous than to see senators without commissions, and legates with-
out instructions, or any public business of a patriotic kind ? This sort
of legation I should have abolished when consul, with the approbation
of a full senate, though apparently its continuance would have been
for the interest of the senate, had not a certain capricious tribune of the
people opposed me. I succeeded,, however, in shortening the duration
of such, and, what was of great importance, made such appointments
merely annual; and thus, though the scandal still remains, it has lost
its perpetuity.
But now, if you please, we will quit the provinces, and once more
return to Rome.
Atticus. It pleases me, certainly; but it would not at all please
those who are in the provinces.
Marcus. But if they, my Atticus, were content to obey the just
laws of their country, they would like nothing better than Rome, and
their Roman villas; and would hold nothing more laborious and trou-
blesome than their provincial appointments.
A law follows, which confirms to the tribunes of the people the
power they possess in our commonwealth, on which I need not enlarge.
Quintus. I beg your pardon, my brother, but I particularly wish
to know your opinion of this power of the tribunes. To me it appears
extremely mischievous, at once the child and parent of endless seditions.
If we look back to the origin of the tribunate, we find that it originally
sprang up at a time of civil disturbances, when all the chief places of
the city were either occupied or besieged. After this, being soon
stifled, as one of those monstrous abortions which, by a law of the
Twelve Tables, are not suffered to live, it again recovered its existence,
INSTITUTIONS 33
only to become baser and viler than ever.
For what kind of atrocity did it leave undone? Its first act was
a piece of villainy well worthy of its impious character, namely, the
abrogation of the honors of the senate and patricians. It reduced the
highest ranks to an equality with the meanest, agitating and confound-
ing all things. When it had thus insulted and violated the gravity of
our nobles, it was still as insane and insensate as before. Not to men-
tion a Flaminius and others, which you may call antiquated instances,
what laws or rights did the tribune Tiberius Gracchus leave to the best
and worthiest citizens? And, five years before, did not the tribune
Caius Curiatius, the basest and foulest of mortals, cast into prison the
consuls Decimus Brutus and Publius Scipio, men of the greatest emi-
nence?— a thing which was wholly unprecedented. And did not C.
Gracchus endeavor to overturn and revolutionize our whole common-
wealth, by throwing darts and daggers into the forum, as he himself
avowed, in order to excite the citizens to mutual slaughter, as if they
were so many gladiators ? Why need I speak of the crimes of Satur-
ninus and others, whose violences the commonwealth could scarcely
repel without civil war ? But why should we mention these antique in-
stances, belonging to other ages, when so many have occurred within
our own memory ? Who was ever so audacious and so inimical to us, as
to nourish a thought of destroying our state, without he had first sharp-
ened some sword of a tribune against us? And when infamous and
profligate men could not find, not only in any house, but not even in
any nation, any such instalment, they endeavored to create disturbances
among the people in the darkest places of the republic.
And what does us infinite honor, and secures us immortal renown,
is the fact, that no tribune could be engaged to appear against us by
any bribe whatever, except that one who could not legally be a tribune
at all, who used the tribunate as a cloak of villainy. As for this mon-
ster, what crimes did he not perpetuate — crimes which, without reason
or plausible hope, he committed with the fury of some savage beast,
maddened with the violence of the brutal mob. I therefore highly ap-
prove of the conduct of Sylla in this particular, inasmuch as by his law
he rendered the tribunes of the people comparatively impotent for mis-
chief, though he left them the power of giving assistance. As for our
friend Pompey, in all other respects I extol him with the amplest and
warmest praises, — I say nothing of his views relating to the power of
the tribunes ; for here I cannot praise him, and yet I would not censure
him. — Cicero, On the Laws, III. 7-9.
INSTITUTIONS
VIII. CENSORS
ESTABLISHED 443 B. C.
This same year was the commencement of the censorship, a thing
which arose from an humble origin, which afterwards increased so
much in importance, that in it was vested the regulation of the morals
and discipline of Rome, the senate and the centuries of the knights,
the distinction of honor and of ignominy were under the sway of that
office, the legal right to public and private places, the revenues of the
Roman people fell under their beck and jurisdiction. The institution
of the thing originated in this, that the people not having been sub-
jected to a survey for several years, the census could neither be de-
ferred, nor had the consuls leisure to discharge their duty, when wars
impended from so many states. An observation was made by the
senate, "that an office laborious in itself, and one little suited to the con-
sular office, required a magistrate for itself, to whose authority should
be submitted the duties of the several scribes, the custody and care of
the records, as well as the adjustment of the form to be adopted in the
census." And inconsiderable though the proposal might be, still the
senate received it with great pleasure, because it increased the number
of patrician magistrates in the state, judging also that that would come
to pass, which really did occur, viz., that the influence of those who
should preside, and the honor of the office would derive on it additional
authority and dignity. The tribunes also, considering the discharge of
the duty (as was really the case) as necessary rather than the duty
itself, as being attended with lustre, did not indeed offer opposition,
lest they should through perverseness show a disposition to thwart
them even in trifles. After the honor was rejected by the leading men
of the state, the people by their suffrages appointed to the office of con-
ducting the census Papirius and Sempronius, concerning whose con-
sulate doubts are entertained, that in that magistracy they might have
some recompense for the incompleteness of their consulate. They were
called censors from the nature of their office. — Livy, IV. 8.
INSTITUTIONS 35
IX. LICINIAN LAW
36l B. C.
There appeared a favorable opportunity for making innovations
on account of the immense load of debt, no alleviation of which evil the
commons could hope for unless their own party were placed in the high-
est authority. To (bring about) that object (they saw) that they
should exert themselves. That the plebeians, by endeavoring and per-
severing, had already gained a step towards it, whence, if they strug-
gled forward, they might reach the summit, and be on a level with the
patricians, in honor as well as in merit. For the present it was resolved
that plebeian tribunes should be created, in which office they might open
for themselves a way to other honors. And Caius Licinius and Lucius
Sextius, being elected tribunes, proposed laws all against the power of
the patricians, and for the interests of the commons: one regarding
the debt, that, whatever had been paid in interest being deduced from
the principal, the remainder should be paid off in three years by equal
installments ; the other concerning the limitation of land, that no one
should possess more than five hundred acres of land ; a third, that there
should be no election of military tribunes, and that one at least of the
consuls should be elected from the commons ; all matters of great im-
portance, and such as could not be attained without the greatest strug-
gles. A contest therefore for all those objects, of which there is ever
an inordinate desire among men, viz., land, money, and honors, being
now proposed, the patricians became terrified and dismayed, and find-
ing no other remedy in their public and private consultations except
the protest, which had been tried in many previous contests, they
gained over their colleagues to oppose the bills of the tribunes. When
they saw the tribes summoned by Licinius and Sextius to announce
their votes, surrounded by bands of patricians, they neither suffered
the bills to be read, nor any other usual form for taking the votes of
the commons to be gone through. And now assemblies being fre-
quently convened to no purpose, when the propositions were now con-
sidered as rejected ; "It is very well," says Sextius ; "since it is deter-
mined that a protest should possess so much power, by that same
weapon will we protect the people. Come, patricians, proclaim an
assembly for the election of military tribunes; I will take care that
that word, I forbid it, which you listen to our colleagues chaunting
36 INSTITUTIONS
with so much pleasure, shall not be very delightful to you. Nor did
the threats fall ineffectual: no elections were held, except those of
aediles and plebeian tribunes. Licinius and Sextius, being re-elected
plebeian tribunes, suffered not any curule magistrates to be appointed,
and this total absence of magistrates continued in the city for the space
of five years, the people re-electing the two tribunes, and these pre-
venting the election of military tribunes.
There was an opportune cessation of other wars : the colonists of
Velitne, becoming wanton through ease, because there was no Roman
army, made repeated incursions on the Roman territory, and set about
laying siege to Tusculum. This circumstance, the Tusculans, old allies,
new fellow-citizens, imploring aid, moved not only the patricians, but
the commons also, chiefly with a sense of honor. The tribunes of the
commons relaxing their opposition, the elections were held by the in-
terrex; and Lucius Furius, Aulus Manlius, Servius Sulpicius, Servius
Cornelius, Publius and Caius Valerius, found the commons by no
means so complying in the levy as in the elections ; and an army hav-
ing been raised amid great contention, they set out, and not only dis-
lodged the enemy from Tusculum, but shut them up even within their
own walls. Velitrae began to be besieged by a much greater force than
that with which Tusculum had been besieged; nor still could it be
taken by those by whom the siege had been commenced. The new
military tribunes were elected first : Quintius Servilius, Caius Veturius,
Aulus and Marcus Cornelius, Quintus Quintius, Marcus Fabius.
Nothing worthy of mention was performed even by these at Velitrae.
Matters were involved in greater peril at home: for besides Sextius
and Licinius, the proposers of the laws, re-elected tribunes of the com-
mons now for the eighth time, Fabius also, military tribune, father-in-
law of Stolo, avowed himself the unhesitating supporter of those laws
of which he had been the adviser. And whereas, there had been at
first eight of the college of the plebeian tribunes protesters against the
laws, there were now only five: and (as is usual with men who leave
their own party) dismayed and astounded, they in words borrowed
from others, urged as a reason for their protest, that which had been
taught them at home ; "that a great number of the commons were ab-
sent with the army at Velitrse ; that the assembly ought to be deferred
till the coming1 of the soldiers, that the entire body of the commons
might give their vote concerning their own interests." Sextius and
Licinius with some of their colleagues, and Fabius, one of the military
tribunes, well-versed now by an experience of many years in managing
INSTITUTIONS 37
the minds of the commons, having brought forward the leading men of
the patricians, teased them by interrogating them on each of the sub-
jects which were about to be brought before the people : "would they
dare to demand, that when two acres of land a head were distributed
among the plebeians, they themselves should be allowed to have more
than five hundred acres ? that a single man should possess the share of
nearly three hundred citizens ; whilst his portion of land scarcely ex-
tended for the plebeian to a stinted habitation and a place of burial?
Was it their wish that the commons, surrounded with usury, should
surrender their persons to the stocks and to punishment, rather than
pay off their debt by (discharging) the principal; and that persons
should be daily led off from the forum in flocks, after being assigned
to their creditors, and that the houses of the nobility should be filled
with prisoners? and that wherever a patrician dwelt, there should be
a private prison ?"
When they had uttered these statements, exasperating and pitiable
in the recital, before persons alarmed for themselves, exciting greater
indignation in the hearers than was felt by themselves, they affirmed
"that there never would be any other limit to their occupying the lands,
or to their butchering the commons by usury, unless the commons were
to elect one consul from among the plebeians, as a guardian of their
liberty. That the tribunes of the commons were now despised, as
being an office which breaks down its own power by the privilege of
protest. That there could be no equality of right, where the dominion
was in the hands of the one party, assistance only in that of the other.
Unless the authority were shared, the commons would never enjoy an
equal share in the commonwealth ; nor was there any reason why any
one should think it enough that plebeians were taken into account at
the consular elections ; unless it were made indispensable that one con-
sul at least should be from the commons, no one would be elected. Or
had they already forgotten, that when it had been determined that
military tribunes should be elected rather than consuls, for this reason,
that the highest honors should be opened to plebeians also, no one out
of the commons was elected military tribune for forty-four years?
How could they suppose, that they would voluntarily confer, when
there are but two places, a share of the honor on the commons, who
at the election of military tribunes used to monopolize the eight places ?
and that they would suffer a way to be opened to the consulship, who
kept the tribuneship so long a time fenced up ? That they must obtain
by a law, what could not be obtained by influence at elections ; and that
38 INSTITUTIONS
one consulate must be set apart out of the way of contest, to which the
commons may have access ; since when left open to dispute it is sure
ever to become the prize of the more powerful. Nor can that now be
alleged, which they used formerly to boast of, that there were not
among the .plebeians qualified persons for curule magistracies. For,
was the government conducted with less activity and less vigor, since
the tribunate of Publius Licinius Calvus, who was the first plebeian
elected to that office, than it was conducted during those years when no
one but patricians was a military tribune? Nay, on the contrary, sev-
eral patricians had been condemned after their tribuneship, no plebeian.
Quaestors also, as military tribunes, began to be elected from the com-
mons a few years before; nor had the Roman people been dissatisfied
with any one of them. The consulate still remained for the attainment
of the plebeians ; that it was the bulwark, the prop of their liberty. If
they should attain that, then that the Roman people would consider
that kings are really expelled from the city, and their liberty firmly
established. For from that day that everything in which the patricians
surpassed them, would flow in on the commons, power and honor,
military glory, birth, nobility, valuable at present for their own enjoy-
ment, sure to be left still more valuable to their children." When they
saw such discourses favorably listened to, they published a new proposi-
tion ; that instead of two commissioners for performing religious rites,
ten should be appointed ; so that one-half should be elected out of the
commons, the other half from the patricians; and they deferred the
meeting (for the discussion) of all those propositions, till the coming
of that army which was besieging Velitras.
The year was completed before the legions were brought back
from Velitrae. Thus the question regarding the laws was suspended
and deferred for the new military tribunes ; for the commons re-elected
the same two plebeian tribunes, because they were the proposers of the
laws. Titus Quinctius, Servius Cornelius, Servius Sulpicius, Spurius
Servilius, Lucius Papirius, Lucius Valerius, were elected military tri-
bunes. Immediately at the commencement of the year the question
about the laws was pushed to the extreme of contention ; and when the
tribes were called, nor did the protest of their colleagues prevent the
proposers of the laws, the patricians being alarmed have recourse to
their two last aids, to the highest authority and the highest citizen.
It is resolved that a dictator be appointed : Marcus Furius Camillus is
appointed, who nominates Lucius ^Emilius his master of the horse. To
meet so powerful a measure of their opponents, the proposers of the
INSTITUTIONS i'j
laws also set forth the people's cause with great determination of mind,
and having convened an assembly of the people, they summon the
tribes to vote. When the dictator took his seat, accompanied by a
band of patricians, full of anger and of threats, and the business was
going on at first with the usual contention of the plebeian tribunes,
some proposing the law and others protesting against it, and though
the protest was more powerful by right, still it was overpowered by
the popularity of the laws themselves and of their proposers, and when
the first tribes pronounced, "Be it as you propose," then Comillus says,
"Since, Romans, tribunitian extravagance, not authority, sways you
now, and ye are rendering the right of protest, acquired formerly by a
secession of the commons, totally unavailing by the same violent con-
duct by which you acquired it, I, as dictator, will support the right of
protest, not more for the interest of the whole commonwealth than for
your sake ; and by my authority I will defend your rights of protection,
which have been overturned. Wherefore if Caius Licinius and Lucius
Sextius give way to the protest of their colleagues, I shall not intro-
duce a patrician magistrate into an assembly of the commons. If, in
opposition to the right of protest, they will strive to saddle laws on the
state as though captive, I will not suffer the tribunitian power to be
destroyed by itself." When the plebeian tribunes still persisted in the
matter with unabated energy and contemptuously, Camillus, being
highly provoked, sent his lictors to disperse the commons ; and added
threats, that if they persisted he would bind down the younger men
by the military oath, and would forthwith lead an army out of the city.
He struck great terror into the people; by the opposition he rather
inflamed than lessened the spirits of their leaders. But the matter
inclining neither way, he abdicted his dictatorship, either because he
had been appointed with some informality, as some have stated; or
because the tribunes of the people proposed to the commons, and the
commons passed it, that if Marcus Furius did anything as dictator, he
should be fined five hundred thousand asses. But both the disposition
of the man himself, and the fact that Publius Manlius was immediately
substituted as dictator for him, incline me to believe, that he was
deterred rather by some defect in the auspices than by this unprece-
dented order. What could be the use of appointing him (Manlius) to
manage a contest in which Camillus had been defeated? and because
the following year had the same Marcus Furius dictator, who certainly
would not without shame have resumed an authority which but the
year before had been worsted in his hands ; at the same time, because
40 INSTITUTIONS
at the time when the motion about fining him is said to have been pub-
lished, he could either resist this order, by which he saw himself
degraded, or he could not have obstructed those others on account of
which this was introduced, and throughout the whole series of disputes
regarding the tribunitian and consular authority, even down to our
own memory, the pre-eminence of the dictatorship was always decided.
Between the abdication of the former dictatorship and the new
one entered on by Manlius, an assembly of the commons being held
by the tribunes, as if it were an interregnum, it became evident which
of the laws proposed were more grateful to the commons, which to the
proposers. For they passed the bills regarding the interest and the
land, rejected the one regarding the plebeian consulate. And both
decisions would have been carried into effect, had not the tribunes
declared that they consulted the people on all the laws collectively.
Publius Manlius, dictator, then inclined the advantage to the side of
the people, by naming Caius Licinius from the commons, who had been
military tribune, as master of the horse. The patricians, I understand,
were much displeased at this nomination, but the dictator used to ex-
cuse himself to the senate, alleging the near relationship between him
and Licinius ; at the same time denying that the authority of master
of the horse was higher than that of consular tribune. When the
elections for the appointment of plebeian tribunes were declared, Lici-
nius and Sextius so conducted themselves, that by denying that they
any longer desired a continuation of the honor, they most powerfully
stimulated the commons to effectuate that which they were anxious for
notwithstanding their dissimulation. "That they were now standing
the ninth year as it were in battle-array against the patricians, with the
greatest danger to their private interests, without any benefit to the
public. That the measures published, and the entire strength of the
tribunitian authority, had grown old with them ; the attack was made on
their propositions, first by the protest of their colleagues, then by ban-
ishing their youth to the war at Velitrse ; at length the dictatorial thun-
der was levelled against them. That now neither colleagues, nor war,
nor dictator stood in their way ; as being a man, who by nominating a
plebeian as master of the horse, has even given an omen for a plebeian
consuL That the commons retarded themselves and their interests.
They could, if they liked, have the city and forum free from creditors,
their lands immediately free from unjust possessors. Which kind-
nesses, when would they ever estimate them with sufficiently grateful
feelings, if, whilst receiving the measures respecting their own inter-
INSTITUTIONS 41
ests, they cut away from the authors of them all hopes of distinction?
That it was not becoming the modesty of the Roman people to require
that they themselves be eased from usury, and be put in possession of
the land unjustly occupied by the great, whilst they leave those persons
through whom they attain these advantages, become old tribunitians,
not only without honour, but even without the hope of honour. Where-
fore they should first determine in their minds what choice they would
make, then declare that choice at the tribunitian elections. If they
wish that the measures published by them should be passed collectively,
there was some reason for re-electing the same tribunes ; for they would
carry into effect what they published. But if they wished that only
to be entertained which may be necessary for each in private, there was
no occasion for the invasion for the invidous continuation of honour;
that they would neither have the tribuneship, nor the people those mat-
ters which were proposed.
40. In reply to such peremptory language of the tribune, when
amazement at the insolence of their conduct and silence struck all
the rest of the patricians motionless, Appius Qaudius Crassus, the
grandson of the decemvir, is said to have stepped forward to refute
their arguments, [urged on] more by hatred and anger than by hope
[of succeeding], and to have spoken nearly to this effect: "Romans, to
me it would be neither new nor surprising, if I too on the present occa-
sion were to hear that one charge, which has ever been advanced
against our family by turbulent tribunes, that even from the beginning
nothing in the state has been of more importance to the Claudian
family than the dignity of the patricians; that they have ever resisted
the interest of the commons. Of which charges I neither deny nor
object to the one, that we, since we have been admitted into the state
and the patricians, have strenuously done our utmost, that the dignity
of those families, among which ye were pleased that we should be,
might be truly said rather to have been increased than diminished.
With respect to the other, in my own defence and that of my ancestors
I would venture to maintain, Romans, (unless any one may consider
those things, which may be done for the general good of the state, were
injurious to the commons as if inhabitants of another city,) that we
neither in our private nor in our official capacity, ever knowingly did
any thing which was intended to be determined to the commons; and
that no act nor word of ours can be mentioned with truth contrary to
your interest (though some may have been contrary to your inclina-
tions.) Even though I were not of the Claudian family, nor descended
V 3-3
43 INSTITUTIONS
from patrician blood, but an ordinary individual of the Roman citizens,
who merely felt that I was descended from free-born parents, and that
1 lived in a free state, could I be silent on this matter: that Lucius
Sextius and Caius Licinius, perpetual tribunes, forsooth, have assumed
such a stock of arrogance during the nine years in which they have
reigned, as to refuse to allow you the free exercise of your suffrage
either at the elections or in enacting laws. On a certain condition, one
of them says, ye shall re-elect us tribunes for the tenth time. What
else is it, but saying, what others sue for, we disdain so thoroughly, that
without some consideration we will not accept it? But in the name
of goodness, what is that consideration, for which we may always have
you tribunes of the commons? that ye admit collectively all our meas-
ures, whether they please or displease, are profitable or unprofitable. I
beg you, Tarquinii, tribunes of the commons, suppose that I, an indi-
vidual citizen, should call out in reply from the middle of the assembly,
With your good leave be it permitted us to select out of these measures
those which we deem to be beneficial to us; to reject the others. It
will not be permitted, he says. Must you enact concerning the interest
of money and the lands, that which tends to the interest of you all ; and
must not this prodigy take place in the city of Rome, that of seeing
Lucius Sextius and this Caius Licinius consuls, a thing which you
loathe and abominate ? Either admit all ; or I propose none. Just as if
any one were to place poison and food together before any one who was
oppressed with famine, and order him either to abstain from that which
would sustain life, or to mix with it that which would cause death.
Wherefore, if this state were free, would they not all in full assembly
have replied to you, Begone hence with your tribuneships and your
propositions ? What ? if you will not propose that which it is the inter-
est of the people to accept, will there be no one who will propose it? If
any patrician, if (what they desire to be still more invidious) any
Claudius should say, Either accept all, or I propose nothing ; which of
you, Romans, would bear it? Will ye never look at facts rather than
persons? but always listen with partial ears to every thing which that
officer will say, and with prejudiced ears to what may be said by any of
us? But, by Jove, their language is by no means becoming members
of the republic. What ! what sort is the measure, which they are indig-
nant as its having been rejected by you? very like their language,
Romans. I ask, he says, that it may not be lawful for you to elect, as
consuls, such persons as ye may wish. Does he require anything else,
who orders that one consul at least be elected from the commons ; nor
INSTITUTIONS 43
docs he grant you the power of electing two patricians? If there were
wars at the present day, such as the Etrurian for instance, when Por-
senna took the Janiculum, such as the Gallic war lately, when, except
the Capitol and citadel, all these places were in possession of the enemy ;
and should Lucius Scxtius stand candidate for the consulate with
Marcus Furius or any other of the patricians: could ye endure that
Sextius should be consul without any risk ; that Camillus should run
the risk of a repulse ? Is this allowing a community of honours, that it
should be lawful that two plebeians, and not lawful that two patricians,
be made consuls, and that it should be necessary that one be elected
from among the commons, and lawful to pass by both of the patricians?
what fellowship, what confederacy is that? Is it not sufficient, if you
come in for a share of that in which you had no share hitherto, unless
whilst suing for a part you seize on the whole? I fear, he says, lest,
if it be lawful that two patricians are to be elected, ye will elect no
plebeian. What else is this but saying, Because ye will not of your
own choice elect unworthy persons, I will impose on you the necessity
of electing persons whom you do not wish? What follows, but that if
one plebeian stand candidate with two patricians, he owes no obligation
to the people, and may say that he was appointed by the law, not by
suffrages ?
41. "How they may extort, not how they may sue for honours,
is what they seek : and they are anxious to attain the highest honours,
so that they may not owe the obligations incurred even for the lowest ;
and they prefer to sue for honours rather through favourable conjunc-
tures than by merit. Is there any one who can feel it an affront to
have himself inspected and estimated ; who thinks it reasonable that to
himself alone, amidst struggling competitors, honours should be cer-
tain? who would withdraw himself from your judgment? who would
make your suffrages necessary instead of voluntary ; servile instead of
free? I omit mention of Licinius and Sextius, whose years of perpetu-
ated power ye number, as that of the kings in the* Capitol ; who is there
this day in the state so mean, to whom the road to the consulate is not
rendered easier through the advantages of that law, than to us and to
our children? inasmuch as you will sometimes not be able to elect us
even though you may wish it; those persons you must elect, even
though you were unwilling. Of the insult offered to merit enough lias
been said (for merit appertains to human beings) ; what shall I say
respecting religion and the auspices, which is contempt and injustice
relating exclusively to the immortal gods? Who is there that does not
44 INSTITUTIONS
know that this city was built by auspices, that all things are conducted
by auspices during war and peace, at home and abroad? In whom
therefore are the auspices vested according to the usage of our fore-
fathers? In the patricians, no doubt; for no plebeian magistrate is
ever elected by auspices. So peculiar to us are the auspices, that not
only do the people elect in no other manner, save by auspices, the patri-
cian magistrates whom they do elect, but even we ourselves, without
the suffrage of the people, appoint the interrex by auspices, and in our
private station we hold those auspices, which they do not hold even in
office. What else then does he do, than abolish auspices out of the
state, who, by creating plebeian consuls, takes them away from the
patricians who alone can hold them? They may not mock a religion.
For what else is it, if the chickens do not feed ? if they come out too
slowly from the coop? if a bird chaunt an unfavourable note? These
are trifling : but by not despising these trifling matters, our ancestors
have raised this state to the highest eminence. Now, as if we had no
need of the favour of the gods, we violate all religious ceremonies.
Wherefore let pontiffs, augurs, kings of the sacrifices be appointed at
random. Let us place the tiara of Jupiter's flamen on any person, pro-
vided he be a man. Let us hand over the ancilia, the shrines, the gods,
and the charge of the worship of gods, to those to whom it is impious
to commit them. Let not laws be enacted, nor magistrates elected
under the auspices. Let not the senate give their approbation, either to
the assemblies of the centuries or of the Curiae. Let Sextius and Licin-
ius, like Romulus and Tatius, reign in the city of Rome, because they
give away as donations other persons' money and lands. So great is
the charm of plundering the possessions of other persons: nor does
it occur to you that by the one law vast wilds are produced throughout
the lands by expelling the proprietors from their territories; by the
other credit is destroyed, along with which all human society ceases to
exist. For every reason, I consider that those propositions ought to be
rejected by you. Whatever ye may do, I pray the gods to render it
successful."
42. The speech of Appius merely had this effect, that the time
for passing the propositions was deferred. The same tribunes, Sex-
tius and Licinius, being re-elected for the tenth time, succeeded in pass-
ing a law, that of the decemvirs for religious matters, one half should
be elected from the commons. Five patricians were elected, and five
of the plebeians; and by that step the way appeared opened to the
consulship. The commons, contented with this victory, yielded to the
INSTITUTIONS 4j
patricians, that, all mention of consuls being omitted for the present,
military tribunes should be elected. Those elected were, Aulus and
Marcus Cornelius a second time, Marcus Geganius, Publius Manlius,
Lucius Veturius, and Publius Valerius a sixth time. When, except
the seige of Velitrae, a matter rather of a slow than dubious result, there
was no disquiet from foreign concerns among the Romans ; the sudden
rumour of a Gallic war being brought, influenced the state to appoint
Marcus Furius dictator for the fifth time. He named Titus Quinctius
Pennus master of the horse. Claudius asserts that a battle was fought
that year with the Gauls, on the banks of the Anio ; and that then the
battle was fought on the bridge, in which Titus Manlius, engaging
with a Gaul by whom he had been challenged, slew him in the sight of
the two armies and dispoiled him of his chain. But I am induced by
the authority of several writers to believe that those things happened
not less than ten years later ; but that in the year a pitched battle was
fought with the Gauls by the dictator, Marcus Furius, in the territory
of Alba. The victory was neither doubtful nor difficult to the Romans,
though from the recollection of the formerdefeat the Gauls had diffused
great terror. Many thousands of the barbarians were slain in the field,
and great numbers in the storming of the camp. The rest dispersing,
making chiefly for Apulia, saved themselves from the enemy, both by
continuing their fight to a great distance, and also because panic and
terror had scattered them very widely. A triumph was decreed to the
dictator with the concurrence of the senate and commons. Scarcely
had he as yet finished the war, when a more violent disturbance awaited
him at home ; and by great struggling the dictator and the senate were
overpowered, so that the measures of the tribunes were admitted ; and
the elections of the consuls were held in spite of the resistance of the
nobility, at which Lucius Sextius was made consul, the first of plebeian
rank. And not even was that an end of the contests. Because the
patricians refused to give their approbation, the affair came very near
a secession of the people, and other terrible threats of civil contests:
when, however, the dissensions were accommodated on certain terms
through the interference of the dictator ; and concessions to the com-
mons were made by the nobility regarding the plebeian consul ; by the
commons to the nobility with respect to one praetor to be elected out of
the patricians, to administer justice in the city. The different orders
being at length restored to concord after their long-continued animosity,
when the senate were of opinion that for the sake of the immortal gods
they would readily do a thing deserving, and that justly, if ever on any
46 INSTITUTIONS
occasion before, that the most magnificent games should be performed,
and that one day should be added to the three ; the plebeian aediles refus-
ing the office, the young patricians cried out with one accord, that they,
for the purpose of paying honour to »the immortal gods, would readily
undertake the task, so that they were appointed aediles. And when
thanks were returned to them by all, a decree of the senate passed,
that the dictator should «ask of the people two persons as aediles from
among the patricians ; that the senate should give their approbation to
all the elections of that year. — Livy VI, 35-42.
X. THE PRAETORSHIP
ESTABLISHED 367 B. C.
I. This year will be .remarkable for the consulship of a man of
mean birth, remarkable for two new magistracies, the praetorship and
curule aedileship. These honours the patricians claimed to themselves,
in consideration of one consulship having been conceded to the ple-
beians. The commons gave the consulship to Lucius Sextius, by whose
law it had been obtained. The Patricians by their popular influence
obtained the prsetorship for Spurius Furius Camillus, the son of
Marcus, the aedileship for Cneius Quinctius Capitolinus and Publius
Cornelius Scipio, men of their own rank. To Lucius Sextius, the
patrician colleague assigned was Lucius ^Emilius Mamercinus. In the
beginning of the year mention was made both of the Gauls, who, after
having strayed about through Apulia, it was now rumored were form-
ing into a body : and also concerning a revolt of the Hernicians. When
all business was purposely deferred, so that nothing should be trans-
acted through means of the plebeian consul, silence was observed on all
matters, and a state of inaction like to a justitium; except that, the
tribunes not suffering it to pass unnoticed that the nobility had arro-
gated to themselves three patrician magistracies as a compensation for
one plebeian consul sitting in curule chairs, clad in the praetexta
like consuls ; the praetor, too, administering justice, and as if colleague
to the consuls, and elected under the same auspices, the senate were in
consequence made ashamed to order the curule aediles to be elected from
among the patricians. It was at first agreed, that they should be elected
from the commons every second year : afterwards the matter was left
open. — Livy, VII. I.
INSTITUTIONS 17
XL PUBLILIAN LAW
336 B. c.
Publilius, under whose guidance and auspices the action had been
fought, receiving the submission of the Latin states, who had lost a
great many of their young men there, ^milius marched the army to
Pedum. The people of Pedum were supported by the states of Tibur,
Praeneste, and Velitrae; auxiliaries had also come from Lanuvium and
Antium. Where, though the Romans had the advantage in several
engagements, still the entire labour remained at the city or Pedum itself
and at the camp of the allied states, which were adjoining the city ; sud-
denly leaving the war unfinished, because he heard that a triumph was
decreed to his colleague, he himself also returned to Rome to demand
a triumph before a victory had been obtained. The senate displeased
by this ambitious conduct, and refusing a triumph unless Pedum was
either taken or surrendered, ^Emilium, alienated from the senate in con-
sequence of this act, administered the remainder of the consulship like
to a seditious tribuneship. For, as long as he was consul, he neither
ceased to criminate the patricians to the people, his colleague by no
means interfering, because he himself also was a plebeian; (the scanty
distribution of the land among the commons in the Latin and Falernian
territory afforded the groundwork of the criminations;) and when the
senate, wishing to put an end to the administration of the consuls,
ordered a dictator to be nominated against the Latins, who were again
in arms, ^milius, to whom the fasces then belonged, nominated his col-
league dictator; by him Junius Brutus was constituted master of the
horse. The dictatorship was popular, both in consequence of his dis-
courses containing invectives against the patricians, and because he
passed three laws, most advantageous to the commons, and injurious
to the nobility ; one, that the orders of the commons should be binding
on all the Romans; another, that the patricians should, before the suff-
rages commenced, declare their approbation of the laws which should
be passed in the assemblies of the centuries ; the third, that one at least
of tjie censois should be elected from the commons, as they had already
gone so far as that it was lawful that both the consuls should be plebe-
ians. The patricians considered that more of detriment had been sus-
tained on that year from the consuls and dictator than was counter-
balanced by their success and achievements abroad.
48 INSTITUTIONS
XII. OGULNIAN LAW
3OO B. C.
6. During this consulate of Marcus Velerius and Quintus Appu-
leius, affairs abroad wore a very peaceable aspect. Their losses sus-
tained in war, together with the truce, kept the Etrurians quiet. The
Samnites, depressed by the misfortunes of many years, had not yet be-
come dissatisfied with their new alliance. At Rome, also, the carrying
away of such multitudes to colonies, rendered the commons tranquil,
and lightened their burdens. But, that things might not be tranquil on
all sides, a contention was excited between the principal persons in the
commomwealth, patricians on one hand, and plebeians on the other, by
the two Ogulnii, Quintus and Cneius, plebeian tribunes, who, seeking
every where occasions of criminating the patricians in the hearing of
the people, and having found they might inflame, not the lowest class of
the commons, but their chief men, the plebeians of consular and tri-
umphal rank, to the complexion of whose honours nothing was now
wanting but the officers of the priesthood, which were not yet laid open
to them. They therefore published a proposal for a law, that, whereas
there were then four augurs and four pontiffs, and it had been deter-
mined that the number of priests should be augmented, the four addi-
tional pontiffs and five augurs should all be chosen out of the commons.
How the college of augurs could be reduced to the number of four, ex-
cept by the death of two, I do not understand : for it is a rule among
the augurs, that their number should be composed of threes, so that the
three ancient tribes, the Ramnes, Titienses, and Luceres, should have
each its own augur ; or, in case there should be occasion for more, that
each should increase its number of augurs, in equal proportion with the
rest, in like manner as when, by the addition of five or four, they made
up the frmmber nine, so that there were three to each tribe. However,
as it was proposed that they should be chosen out of the commons, the
patricians were as highly offended at the proceeding, as when they saw
the consulship made common ; yet they pretended that the business con-
cerned not them so much as it did the gods, who would "take care that
their own worship should 'not be contaminated ; that, for their parts, they
only wished that no misfortune might ensue to the commonwealth."'
But they made a less vigorous opposition, as being now accustomed to
suffer defeat in such kind of disputes ; and they saw their adversaries,
INSTITUTIONS 49
not, as formerly, grasping at that which they could scarcely hope to
reach, the higher honours ; but already in possession of all those advan-
tages, on the uncertain prospect of which they had maintained the con-
test, manifold consulships, censorships, and triumphs.
The principal struggle, however, in supporting and opposing the
bill, they say, was between Appius Claudius and Publius Decius Mus,
of patricians and plebeians, which had been formerly employed for and
against the Licinian law, when the proposition was brought forward of
opening the consulship to plebeians, Decius is said to have drawn a
lively description of his own father, such as many then present in the
assembly had seen him, girt in the Gabine dress, standing on a spear,
in the attitude in which he had devoted himself for the people and the
legions, and to have added, that "the consul Publius Decius was then
deemed by the immortal gods an offering equally pure and pious, as if
his colleague, Titus Manlius, had been devoted. And might not the
same Publius Decius have been, with propriety, chosen to perform the
public worship of the Roman people ? Was there any danger that the
gods would give less attention to his prayer than to those of Appius
Claudius? Did the latter perform his private acts of adoration with
a purer mind, or worship the gods more religiously than he ? Who had
any reason to complain of the vows offered in behalf of the common-
wealth, by so many plebeian consuls and dictators, either when setting
out to their armies, or in the heat of battle? Were the numbers of
commanders reckoned, during those years since business began to be
transacted under the conduct and auspices of plebeians, the same num-
ber of triumphs might be found. The commons had now no reason to
be dissatisfied with their own nobility. On the contrary, they were fully
convinced, that in case of a sudden war breaking out, the senate and
people of Rome would not repose greater confidence in patrician than in
plebeian commanders. "Which being the case," said he, "what god or
man can deem it an impropriety, if those whom ye have honored with
curule chairs, with the purple bordered gown, with the palm-vest and
embroidered robe, with the triumphal crown and laurel, whose houses ye
have rendered conspicuous above others, by affixing to them the spoils
of conquered enemies, should add to these the badges of augurs or pon-
tiffs? If a person, who has ridden through the city in a gilt chariot;
and, decorated with the ensigns of Jupiter, supremely good and great,
has mounted the Capitol, should be seen with a chalice and wand ; what
impropriety, I say, that he should, with his head veiled, slay a victim,
50 INSTITUTIONS
or take an augury in the citadel ? When, in the inscription on a person's
siatue, the consulship, censorship, the triumph shall be read with pa-
tience, will the eyes of readers be unable to endure the addition of the
office of augur or pontiff? In truth (with deference to the gods I say
it) I trust that we are, through the kindness of the Roman people, qual-
ified in such a manner that we should, by the dignity of our characters,
reflect back on the priesthood, not less lustre than we should receive ;
and may demand, rather on behalf of the gods, than for our own sakes,
that those whom we worship in our private we may also worship in a
public capacity.
"But why do I argue thus, as if the cause of the patricians, respect-
ing the priesthood, were untouched ? and as if we were not already in
possession of one sacerdotal office, of the highest class ? We see plebeian
decemvirs, for performing sacrifices, interpreters of the Sibylline pro-
phecies, and of the fates of the nation ; we also see them presidents of
Apollo's festival, and of other religious performances. Neither was
any injustice done to the patricians, when, to the two commissioners for
performing sacrifices, an additional number was joined, in favor of the
plebeians; nor is there now, when a tribune, a man of courage and
activity, wishes to add five places of augurs, and four of pontiffs, to
which plebeians may be nominated; not, Appius, with intent to expel
you from your places ; but, that men of plebeian rank may assist you,
in the management of divine affairs, with the same zeal with which they
assist you in matters of human concernment. Blush not, Appius, at
having a man your colleague in the priesthood, whom you might have a
colleague in the censorship or consulship, whose master of the horse
you yourself may be, when he is dictator, as well as dictator when he is
master of the horse. A Sabine adventurer, the first origin of your
nobility, either Attus Clausus, or Appius Claudius, which you will, the
ancient patricians of those days admitted into their number: do not
then, on your part, disdain to admit us into the number of priests. We
bring with us numerous honors ; all those honors, indeed, which have
rendered your party so proud. Lucius Sextius was the first consul
chosen out of the plebeians ; Caius Licinius Stolo, the first master of the
horse; Caius Marcius Rutilus, the first dictator, and likewise censor;
Ouintus Publilius Philo, the first praetor. On all occasions was heard a
repetition of the same arguments ; that the right of auspices was vested
in you; that ye alone had the rights of ancestry; that ye alone were
legally entitled to supreme command, and the auspices both in peace
and war. The supreme command has hitherto been, and will continue
INSTITUTIONS 51
to be, equally prosperous in plebeian hands as in patrician. Have ye
never heard it said, that the first created patricians were not men sent
down from heaven, but such as could cite their fathers, that is, nothing
more than free born. I can now cite my father, a consul ; and my son
will be able to cite a grandfather. Citizens, there is nothing else in it,
than that we should never obtain anything without a refusal. The patri-
cians wish only for a dispute ; nor do they care what issue their disputes
may have. For my part, be it advantageous, happy, and prosperous to
you and to the commonwealth, I am of opinion that this law should
receive your sanction."
The people ordered that the tribes should be instantly called ; and
there was every appearance that the law would be accepted. It was
deferred, however, for that day, by a protest, from which on the day
following the tribunes were deterred ; and it passed with the approba-
tion of a vast majority. The pontiffs created were, Publius Decius Mus,
the advocate for the law ; Publius Sempronius Sophus, Caius Marcius
Rutilus, and Marcus Livius Denter. The five augurs, who were also
plebeians, were, Caius Genucius, Publius ^Elius Paetus, Marcus Minu-
cius Fessus, Caius Marcius, and Titus Publilius. Thus the number of
the pontiffs was made eight ; that of the augurs nine. In the same year
Marcus Valerius, consul, procured a law to be passed concerning ap-
peals : more carefully enforced by additional sanctions. This was the
third time, since the expulsion of the kings, of this law being introduced,
and always by the same family. The reason for renewing it so often
was, I believe, no other, than that the influenceof a few was apt to prove
too powerful for the liberty of the commons. However, the Porcian
law seemed intended, solely, for the security of the persons of the citi-
zens ; as it visited with a severe penalty any one for beating with stripes
or putting to death a Roman citizen. The Valerian law, after forbid-
ding a person, who had appealed, to be beaten with rods and beheaded,
added, in case of any one acting contrary thereto, that it shall yet be only
deemed a wicked act. This, I suppose, was judged of sufficient strength
to enforce obedience to the law in those days ; so powerful was then
men's sense of shame ; at present one would scarcely make use of such
a threat seriously. The ^quans rebelling, the same consul conducted
the war against them; in which no memorable event occurred; for
except ferocity, they retained nothing of their ancient condition. The
other consul, Appuleius, invested the town of Nequinum, in Umbria.
The ground, the same whereon Narnia now stands, was steep (on one
side even perpendicular) ; this rendered the town impregnable either by
52 INSTITUTIONS
assault or works. That business, therefore, came unfinished into the
hands of the succeeding consuls, Marcus Fulvius Paetinus and Titus
Manlius Torquatus. When all the centuries named Quintus Fabius
consul for that year though not a candidate, Macer Licinius and Tubero
state that he himself recommended them to postpone the conferring the
consulship on him until a year wherein there might be more employment
for their arms, adding, that, during the present year, he might be more
useful to the state in the management of a city magistracy ; and thus,
neither dissembling what he preferred, nor yet making direct application
for it, he was appointed curule aedile with Lucius Papirius Cursor.
Piso, a more ancient writer of annals, prevents me from averring this
as certain ; he asserts that the curule aediles of that year were Cains Do-
mitius Calvinus, son of Cneius, and Spurius Carvilius Maximus, son
of Caius. I am of opinion, that this latter surname caused a mistake
concerning the sediles ; and that thence followed a story conformable to
this mistake, patched up out of the two elections, of the sediles, and of
the consuls. The general survey was performed, this year, by Publius
Sempronius Sopho and Publius Sulpicius Saverrio, censors; and two
tribes were added, the Aniensian and Terentine. Such were the occur-
rences at Rome. — Livy, X. 6-9.
XIII. QUESTOR
ESTABLISHED DURING THE MONARCHY BEFORE 509 B, C.
During the same consulship, Publius Dolabella proposed a new
regulation, requiring that a public spectacle of gladiators should be
exhibited annually at the expense of such as obtained the office of
questor. In the early stages of the commonwealth that magistracy was
considered as the reward of virtue. The honors of the state lay open
to every citizen who relied on his fair endeavors, and the integrity of
his character. The difference of age created no incapacity. Men in
the prime of life might be chosen consuls and dictators. The office of
questor was instituted during the monarchy, as appears from the law
Cnriata which was afterwards put in force by Lucius Junius Brutus.
The right of election was vested in the consuls, till at last it centered in
the people at large; and accordingly we find that about sixty-three
years after the expulsion of the Tarquins, Valerius Potitus and JEmi-
lius Mamercus were the first popular questors, created to attend the
armies of the republic. The multiplicity of affairs increasing at Rome,
INSTITUTIONS 63
two were added to act in a civil capacity. In the course of time, when all
Italy was reduced to subjection, and foreign provinces augmented the
public revenue, the number of questors was doubled. Sulla created
twenty; he had transferred all judicial authority to the senate; and to
fill that order with its proper complement was the object of his policy.
The Roman knights, it is true, recovered their ancient jurisdiction; but
even during those convulsions, and from that era to the time we are
speaking of, the questorship was either obtained through the merit and
dignity of the candidates, or granted by the favor and free will of the
people. It was reserved for Dolabella to make the election venal. —
Tacitus, Annals, XI. 22.
XIV. HORTENSIAN LAW.
287 B. C
Hortensius, the Dictator, on the secession of the plebeians to the
Janiculum hill, passed a law to the effect that whatever law the plebeians
had enacted should be binding upon every Roman citizen. — Pliny the
Elder (24-79 A. D.) Natural History, XVI. 10. 37.
In the first book of Lselius Felix addressed to Mucius, Labeo is said
to have written that the comitia calata are those which are held for the
college of priests or to inaugurate the president of the sacrifices or the
flamens ; that some of these were curiata, others centuriata. The curiata
were summoned by the lictor curiatus, the centuriata by a trumpeter.
At the same comitia, which we have said are called calata, the renuncia-
tion of the sacred rites, and the making of testaments took place.
There were three kinds of testaments : one which was made at comitia
calata in the assembly of the people ; the second in the army when they
were drawn up in line to engage in battle ; the third, by emancipation
of a family, in which the coin and the scales were used. In the same
book of Lselius Felix this is written : "He who requires not the whole
people, but only a part, to be present, should summon not a comitia
but a concilium. Tribunes dare not summon patricians, nor refer any
case to them; so the things that are passed at the instance of the
instance of the tribunes of the people are not properly called leges but
plebiscita. Patricians were not formerly bound by these edicts, until
Q. Hortensius, the 'dictator, made this law, that all the citizens should
te bound by the laws passed by the people." The following passage
64 INSTI rUTIONS
also occurs in the same book : "When the vote was taken by families,
the comitia was called curiata ; when it was taken according to property
and age, centuriata; when according to residence and locality, tributa.
The comitia centuriata must not be held within the walls of the city,
because the army must be commanded outside of the city, and not law-
fully inside of it. Accordingly the centuriata were held in the Campus
Martins, and the army was drawn up for defense, since the people were
engaged in voting. — Aulus Gellius C 117-180 A. D.), "Noctes Atticae."^
XV. THE APPIAN ROAD
FIRST MILITARY ROAD, 312 B. C.
The censorship of Appius Qaudius and Caius Plautius, for this
year, was remarkable ; but the name of Appius has been handed down
with more celebrity to posterity, on account of his having made the
road (called after him, the Appian), and for having conveyed water into
the city. These works he performed alone. — Livy, IX, 33.
XVI. THE OVINIAN LAW
It was determined that the Censors should read out in the senate
the names of all the best men from every rank, by curiae, that those
whose names were not thus read out might be driven from their posi-
tions and regarded as ignominious. — Festus the Grammarian (2d Cen-
tury A. D. )
XVII. SUMPTUARY LAWS
ON WOMAN'S DRESS
Amid the serious concerns of important wars, either scarcely
brought to a close or impending, an incident intervened, trivial indeed
to be mentioned, but which, through the zeal of the parties concerned,
issued in a violent contest. Marcus Fundanius and Lucius Valerius,
plebeian tribunes, proposed to the people the repealing of the Oppian
law. This law, which had been introduced by Caius Oppias, plebeian
tribune, in the consulate of Quintus Fabius and Tiberius Sempronius,
INSTITUTIONS 55
during the heat of the Punic war, enacted that "no woman should pos-
sess more than half an ounce of gold, or wear a garment of various
colors, or ride in a carriage drawn by horses, in a city, or any town, or
any place nearer thereto than one mile ; except on occasion of some pub-
lic religious solemnity." Marcus and Publius Junius Brutus, plebeian
tribunes, supported the Oppian law, and declared, that they would never
suffer it to be repealed ; while many of the nobility stood forth to argue
for and against the motion proposed. The Capitol was filled with
crowds, who favored or opposed the law ; nor could the matrons be kept
at home, either by advice or shame, nor even by tlie commands of their
husbands; but beset every street and pass in the city, beseeching the
men as they went down to the forum, that in the present flourishing
state of the commonwealth, when the private fortune of all was daily
increasing, they would suffer the women to have their former orna-
ments of dress restored. This throng of women increased daily, for
they arrived even from the country towns and villlages ; and they had
at length the boldness to come up to the consuls, praetors, and magis-
trates, to urge their request. One of the consuls, however, they found
especially inexorable — Marcus Porcius Cato, who, in support of the
law proposed to be repealed, spoke to this effect : —
"If, Romans, every individual among us had made it a rule to
maintain the prerogative and authority of a husband with respect to
his own wife, we should have less trouble with the whole sex. But
now, our privileges, overpowered at home by female contumacy, are,
even here in the forum, spurned and trodden under foot ; and because
we are unable to withstand each separately, we now dread their col-
lective body. I was accustomed to think it a fabulous and fictitious tale,
that, in a certain island, the whole race of males was utterly extirpated
by a conspiracy of the women. But the utmost danger may be appre-
hended equally from either sex, if you suffer cabals, assemblies, and
secret consultations to be held ; scarcely, indeed, can I determine, in my
own mind, whether the act itself, or the precedent that it affords, is of
more pernicious tendency. The latter of these more particularly con-
cerns us consuls, and the other magistrates : the former, yourselves, my
fellow-citizens. For, whether the measure proposed to your considera-
tion be profitable to the state or not, is to be determined by you, who
are about to go to the vote. As to the outrageous behavior of these
women, whether it be merely an act of their own, or owing to your
instigations, Marcus Fundanius and Lucius Valerius, it unquestionably
implies culpable conduct in magistrates. I know not whether it reflects
56 INSTITUTIONS
greater disgrace on you, tribunes, or on the consuls : on you certainly,
if you have, on the present occasion, brought these women hither for
the purpose of raising tribunitian seditions; on us, if we suffer laws
to be imposed on us by a secession of women, as was done formerly by
that of the common people. It was not without painful emotions of
shame, that I, just now, made my way into the forum through the midst
of a band of women. Had I not been restrained by respect for the
modesty and dignity of some individuals among them, rather than of
the whole number, and been unwilling that they should be seen rebuked
by a consul, I should have said to them, 'What sort of practice is this,
of running out into public, besetting the streets, and addressing other
women's husbands ? Could not each have made the same request to her
husband at home? Are your blandishments more seducing in public
than in private ; and with other women's husbands, than with your own ?
Although if the modesty of matrons confined them within the limits of
their own rights, it did not become you, even at home, to concern your-
selves about what laws might be passed or repealed here.' Our ances-
tors thought it not proper that women should perform any, even private
business, without a director ; but that they should be ever under the con-
trol of parents, brothers, or husbands. We, it seems, suffer them, now,
to interfere in the management of state affairs, and to introduce them-
selves into the forum, into general assemblies, and into assemblies of
election. For, what are they doing, at this moment, in your streets and
lanes? What, but arguing, some in support of the motion of the ple-
beian tribunes ; others, for the repeal of the law ? Will you give the
reins to their intractable nature, and their uncontrolled passions, and
then expect that themselves should set bounds to their licentiousness,
when you have failed to do so? This is the smallest of the injunctions
laid on them by usage or the laws, all which women bear with impa-
tience: they long for liberty; or rather, to speak the truth, for un-
bounded freedom in every particular. For what will they not attempt,
if they now come off victorious ?
"Recollect all the institutions respecting the sex, by which our fore-
fathers restrained their undue freedom, and by which they subjected
them to their husbands ; and yet, even with the help of all these restric-
tions, you can scarcely keep them within bounds. If, then, you suffer
them to throw these off one by one, to tear them all asunder, and, at
last, to be set on an equal footing with yourselves, can you imagine
that they will be any longer tolerable by you ? The moment they have
arrived at an equality with you, they will have become your superiors.
INSTITUTIONS 57
But, forsooth, they only object to any new law being made against
them : they mean to deprecate, not justice, but severity. Nay, their wish
is, that a law which you have admitted, established by your suffrages,
and confirmed by the practice and experience of so many years to be
beneficial, should now be repealed ; that is, that, by abolishing one law,
you should weaken all the rest. No law perfectly suits the convenience
of ever}' member of the community : the only consideration is, whether,
upon the whole, it be profitable to the greater part. If, because a law
proves obnoxious to a private individual, that circumstance should
destroy and sweep it away, to what purpose is it for the community to
enact general laws, which those, with reference to whom they were
passed, could presently repeal? I should like, however, to hear what
this important affair is which has induced the matrons thus to run out
into public in this excited manner, scarcely restraining from pushing into
the forum and the assembly of the people. Is it to solicit that their
parents, their husbands, children, and brothers may be ransomed from
captivity under Hannibal ? By no means : and far be ever from the
commonwealth so unfortunate a situation. Yet, even when such was
the case, you refused this to their prayers. But it is not duty, nor
solicitude for their friends; it is religion that has collected them to-
gether. They are about to receive the Idaean Mother, coming out of
Phrygia from Pessinus ! What motive, that even common decency will
allow to be mentioned, is pretended for this female insurrection ? Why,
say they, that we may shine in gold and purple ; that, both on festal and
common days, we may ride through the city in our chariots, triumph-
ing over vanquished and abrogated law, after having captured and
wrested from you your suffrages ; and that there may be no bounds to
our expenses and our luxury.
"Often have you heard me complain of the profuse expenses of the
women— often of those of the men ; and that not only of men in private
stations, but of the magistrates ; and that the state was endangered by
two opposite vices, luxury and avarice; those pests, which have been
the ruin of all great empires. These I dread the more, as the circum-
stances of the commonwealth grow daily more prosperous and happy ;
as the empire increases ; as we have now passed over into Greece and
Asia, places abounding with every kind of temptation that can inflame
the passions ; and as we have begun to handle even royal treasures : so
much the more do I fear that these matters will bring us into captivity,
rather than we them. Believe me, those statues from Syracuse were
brought into this city with hostile effect. I already hear too many
V 3-4
68 INSTITUTIONS
commending and admiring the decorations of Athens and Corinth, and
ridiculing the earthen images of our Roman gods that stand on the
fronts of their temples. For my part I prefer these gods, — propitious
as they are, and I hope will continue to be, if we allow them to remain
in their own mansions. In the memory of our fathers, Pyrrhus, by his
ambassador Cineas, made trial of the dispositions, not only of our men,
but of our women also, by offers of presents : at that time the Oppian
law, for restraining female luxury, had not been made; and yet not
one woman accepted a present. What, think you, was the reason?
That for which our ancestors made no provision by law on this sub-
ject: there was no luxury existing which needed to be restrained.
As diseases must necessarily be known before their remedies, so pas-
sions come into being before the laws which prescribe limits to them.
What called forth the Licinian law, restricting estates to five hundred
acres, but the unbounded desire for enlarging estates? What the
Cincian law, concerning gifts and presents, but that the plebeians had
become vassals and tributaries to the senate? It is not therefore in any
degree surprising, that no want of the Oppian law, or of any other, to
limit the expenses of the women, was felt at that time, when they
refused to receive gold and purple that was thrown in their way, and
offered to their acceptance. If Cineas were now to go round the city
with his presents, he would find numbers of women standing in the
public streets to receive them. There are some passions, the causes or
motives of which I can no way account for. For that that should not be
lawful for you which is permitted to another, may perhaps naturally
excite some degree of shame or indignation ; yet, when the dress of all
is alike, why should any one of you fear, lest "he should not be an object
of observation ? Of all kinds of shame, t'he worst, surely, is the being
ashamed of frugality or of poverty; but the law relieves you with
regard to both ; since that which you have not it is unlawful or you to
possess. This equalization, says the rich matron, is the very thing I
cannot endure. Why do not I make a figure, distinguished with gold
and purple? Why is the poverty of others concealed under this cover
of a law, so that it should be thought that, if the law permitted, they
would have such things as they are not now able to procure? Romans,
do you wish to excite among your wives an emulation of this sort, that
the rich should wish to have what no other can have ; and that the
poor, lest they should be despised as such, should extend their expenses
beyond their means? Be assured, that when a woman once begins to
be ashamed of what she ought not to be ashamed of, she will not be
INSTITUTIONS 6tf
ashamed of what she ought. She who can, will purchase out of her
own purse ; she who cannot, will ask her husband. Unhappy is the
husband, both he who complies with the request, and he who does not ;
for what he will not give himself, he will sec given by another. Now,
they openly solicit favors from other men's husbands; and, what is
more, solicit a law and votes. From some they obtain them ; although,
with regard to yourself, your property, or your children, they would be
inexorable. So soon as the law shall cease to limit the expenses of your
wife, you yourself will never be able to do so. Do not suppose that the
matter will hereafter be in the same state in which it was before the
law was made on the subject. It is safer that a wicked man should
even never be accused, than that he should be acquitted ; and luxury, if
it had never been meddled with, would be more tolerable than it will be,
now, like a wild beast, irritated by having been chained, and then let
loose. My opinion is, that the Oppian law ought, on no account, to be
repealed. Whatever determination you may come to, I pray all the
gods to prosper it."
After him the plebeian tribunes, who had declared their intention
of protesting, added a few words to the same purport. Then Lucius
Valerius spoke thus in support of the measure which he himself had
introduced : — "If private persons only had stood forth to argue for and
against the proposition which we have submitted to your consideration,
I for my part, thinking enough to have been said on both sides, would
have waited in silence for your determination. But since a person of
most respectable judgment, the consul, Marcus Porcius, has reprobated
our motion, not only by the influence of his opinion, which, had he
said nothing, would carry very great weight, but also in a long and
careful discourse, it becomes necessary to say a few words in answer.
He has spent more words in rebuking the matrons, than in arguing
against the measure proposed ; and even went so far as to mention a
doubt, whether the matrons had committed the conduct which he cen-
sured in them spontaneously or at our instigation. I shall defend the
measure, not ourselves: for the consul threw out those insinuations
against us, rather for argument's sake, than as a serious charge. He has
made use of the terms cabal and sedition ; and, sometimes, secession of
the women : because the matrons had requested of you, in the public
streets, that, in this time of peace, when the commonwealth is flourish-
ing and happy, you would repeal a law that was made against them
during a war, and in times of distress. I know that these and other
similar strong expressions, for the purpose of exaggeration, are easily
60 INSTITUTIONS
found ; and, mild as Marcus Cato is in his disposition, yet in his speeches
he is not only vehement, but sometimes even austere. What new thing,
let me ask, have the matrons done in coming out into public in a body
on an occasion which nearly concerns themselves? Have they never
before appeared in public ? I will turn over your own Antiquities, and
quote them against you. Hear, now, how often they have done the
same, and always to the advantage of the public. In the earliest period
of our history, even in the reign of Romulus, when the Capitol had been
taken by the Sabines, and a pitched battle was fought in the forum, was
not the fight stopped by the interposition of the matrons between the
two armies? When, after the expulsion of the kings, the legions of
the Volscians, under the command of Marcius Coriolanus, were en-
camped at the fifth stone, did not the matrons turn away that army,
which would have overwhelmed this city? Again, when Rome was
taken by the Gauls, whence was the city ransomed? Did not the ma-
trons, by unanimous agreement, bring their gold into the public treas-
ury? In the late war, not to go back to remote antiquity, when there
was a want of money, did not the funds of the widows supply the
treasury ? And when even new gods were invited hither to the relief of
our distressed affairs, did not the matrons go out in a body to the sea-
shore to receive the Idaean Mother? The cases, you will say, are dis-
similar. It is not my purpose to produce similar instances ; it is suffi-
cient that I clear these women of having done any thing new. Now,
what nobody wondered at their doing in cases which concerned all in
common, both men and women, can we wonder at their doing in a
case peculiarly affecting themselves? But what have they done? We
have proud ears, truly, if, though masters disdain not the prayers of
slaves, we are offended at being asked a favor by honorable women.
"I come now to the question in debate, with respect to which the
consul's argument is two-fold : for, first, he is displeased at the thought
of any law whatever being repealed ; and then, particularly, of that law
which was made to restrain female luxury. His former argument, in
support of the laws in general, appeared highly becoming of a consul ;
and that on the latter, against luxury, was quite conformable to the
rigid strictness of his morals. There is, therefore, a danger lest, unless
I shall show what, on each subject, was inconclusive, you may probably
be led away by error. For while I acknowledge, that of those laws
which are instituted, not for any particular time, but for eternity, on
account of their perpetual utility, not one ought to be repealed ; unless
either experience evince it to be useless, or some state of the public
INSTITUTIONS 61
affairs render it so ; I see, at the same time, that those laws which par-
ticular seasons have required, are mortal (if I may use the term), and
changeable with the times. Those made in peace arc generally repealed
by war ; those made in war, by peace ; as in the management of a ship,
some implements are useful in good weather, others in bad. As these
two kinds arc thus distinct in their nature, of which kind does that law
appear to be which we now propose to repeal? Is it an ancient law of
the kings, coeval with the city itself? Or, what is next to that, was it
written in the Twelve Tables by the decemvirs, appointed to form a
code of laws ? Is it one, without which our ancestors thought that the
honor of the female sex could not be preserved ? and, therefore, have
we also reason to fear, that, together with it, we should repeal the
modesty and chastity of our females ? Now, is there a man among you
who does not know that this is a new law, passed not more than twenty
years ago, in the consulate of Quintus Fabius and Tiberius Sempronius ?
And as, without it, our matrons sustained, for such a number of years,
the most virtuous characters, what danger is there of their abandoning
themselves to luxury on its being repealed? For, if that law had been
passed for the purpose of setting a limit to the passions of the sex,
there would be reason to fear lest the repeal of it might operate as an
incitement to them. But the real reason of its being passed, the time
itself will show. Hannibal was then in Italy, victorious at Cannae: he
already held possession of Tarentum, of Arpi, of Capua, and seemed
ready to bring up his army to the city of Rome. Our allies had deserted
us. We had neither soldiers to fill up the legions, nor seamen to man
the fleet, nor money in the treasury. Slaves, who were to be employed
as soldiers, were purchased on condition of their price being paid to
the owners at the end of the war. The farmers of the revenues had
declared, that they would contract to supply corn and other matters,
which the exigencies of the war required, to be paid for at the same
time. We gave up our slaves to the oar, in numbers proportioned to
our properties, and paid them out of our own incomes. All our gold
and silver, in imitation of the example given by the senators, we dedi-
cated to the use of the public. Widows and minors lodged their money
in the treasury. It was provided by law that we should not keep in our
houses more than a certain sum of wrought gold or silver, or more
than a certain sum of coined silver or brass. At such a time as this,
were the matrons so eagerly engaged in luxury and dress, that the
Oppian law was requisite to repress such practices; when the senate,
because the sacrifice of Ceres had been omitted, in consequence of all
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the matrons being in mourning, ordered the mourning to end in thirty
days? Who does not clearly see, that the poverty and distress of the
state, requiring that every private person's money should be converted
to the use of the public, enacted that law, with intent that it should
remain in force so long only as the cause of enacting the law should
remain ? For if all the decrees of the senate and orders of the people,
which were then made to answer the necessities of the times, are to be
of perpetual obligation, why do we refund their money to private
persons? Why do we contract for public works for ready money?
Why are not slaves brought to serve in the army? Why do not we,
private subjects, supply rowers as we did then?
"Shall, then, every other class of people, every individual, feel the
improvement in the condition of the state ; and shall our wives alone
reap none of the fruits of the public peace and tranquillity ? Shall we
men have the use of purple, wearing the purple-bordered gown in
magistracies and priests' offices? Shall our children wear gowns bor-
dered with purple? Shall we allow the privilege of wearing the toga
prsetexta to the magistrates of the colonies and borough towns, and to
the very lowest of them here at Rome, the superintendents of the
streets ; and not only of wearing such an ornament of distinction while
alive, but of being buried with it when dead ; and shall we interdict the
use of purple to women alone ? And when you, the husband, may wear
purple in your great coat, will you not suffer your wife to have a purple
mantle? Shall your horse be more splendidly caparisoned than your
wife is clothed? But with respect to purple, which will be worn out
and consumed, I can see an unjust, indeed, but still a sort of reason,
for parsimony ; but with respect to gold, in which, excepting the price
of the workmanship, there is no waste, what objection can there be?
It rather serves as a reserve fund or both public and private exigencies,
as you have already experienced. He says there will be no emulation
between individuals, when no one is possessed of it. But, in truth, it
will be a source of grief and indignation to all, when they see those
ornaments allowed to the wives of the Latin confederates of which they
themselves have been deprived; when they see those riding through
the city in their carriages, and decorated with gold and purple, while
they are obliged to follow on foot, as if the seat of empire were in the
country of the others, not in their own. This would hurt the feelings
even of men, and what do you think must be its effect on those of weak
women, whom even trifles can disturb ? Neither offices of state, nor of
the priesthood, nor triumphs, nor badges of distinction, nor military
INSTITUTIONS 63
presents, nor spoils, can fall to their share. Elegance of appearance,
and ornaments, and dress, these are the women's badges of distinction ;
in these they delight and glory ; these our ancestors called the women's
world. What else do they lay aside when in mourning, except their
gold and purple? And what else do they resume when the mourning
is over? How do they distinguish themselves on occasion of public
thanksgivings and supplications, but by adding unusual splendor of
dress? But then (it may be said), if you repeal the Oppian law,
should you choose to prohibit any of those particulars which the law
at present prohibits, you will not have it in your power ; your daughters,
wives, and even the sisters of some, will be less under control. The
bondage of women is never shaken off without the loss of their friends ;
and they themselves look with horror on that freedom which is pur-
chased with the condition of the widow or the orphan. Their wish is,
that their dress should be under your regulation, not under that of the
law ; and it ought to be your wish to hold them in control and guardian-
ship, not in bondage ; and to prefer the title of father or husband to that
of master. The consul just now made use of some invidious terms, call-
ing it a female sedition and secession ; because, I suppose, there is
danger of their seizing the sacred mount, as formerly the angry plebe-
ians did'; or the Aventine. Their feeble nature must submit to whatever
you think proper to enjoin ; and, the greater power you possess, the
more moderate ought you to be in the exercise of your authority."
8. Although all these considerations had been urged against the
motion and in its favour, the women next day poured out into public in
much greater numbers, and in a body beset the doors of the tribunes
who had protested against the measure of their colleagues ; nor did they
retire until this intervention was withdrawn. There was then no fur-
ther doubt but that every one of the tribes would vote for the repeal of
the law annulled, in the twentieth year after it had been made. — Livy,
XXXIV. 1-8.
ON FOOD
Among the Romans, frugality and temperance with respect to the
food and entertainments was secured not only by private habit and dis-
cipline, but also by public opinion and the sanction of many laws. Thus
I lately read in the miscellanies of Capito Ateius an old decree of the
senate, made in the consulship of C. Fannius and M. Valerius Messala,
in which the chief men of the city, who by ancient custom entertained
in rotation at the Megalensian games, were made to swear in set form
64 INSTITUTIONS
before the consuls, that they would not expend at any one dinner more
than 1 20 sesterces (equivalent to $4.80) aside from the oil, corn, and
wine; nor would use foreign, but domestic wines; nor would expend
at an entertainment more than one hundred pounds weight of silver.
But after this decree, the Fannian law was passed, which permitted a
hundred sesterces to be spent each day, at Roman games, the, plebeian
games and the Saturnalia, and certain other days, and on ten days every
month, thirty sesterces, but on all other days, ten. The poet Lucilius
refers to this law when he says :
Fanni sentussis misellos.
(The beggardly hundred pennies of Fannus.)
In regard to this some of the commentators on Lucilius have erred
in supposing that a hundred sesterces was the expenditure fixed for
every day by the Fannian law ; whereas Fannius, as I have said above,
assigned the sum of one hundred sesterces for certain festal days, which
he named, but restricted the expenditures of other days to from ten to
thirty sesterces a day. Then the Licinian law was proposed, which like
the Fennian law, permitted one hundred sesterces to be spent on certain
days, and two hundred on wedding days ; for other days it allowed for
thirty, fixing also for each day a certain weight of dried meat and salted
fish ; fruit of the earth, tree and vine were allowed freely and without
restriction Afterwards, when these laws had become in-
effective through disuse and old age, and many were rioting in large
patrimonies and wasting their estates and property by the enormous
expenses of dinners, L. Sulla, the dictator, proposed a law to the people
which provided that on the Kalends, Ideas, and Nones, at the games and
on certain solemn feast days, they might spend for dinner thirty sester-
ces, but on all other days not more than three. Beside these laws, we
find also the Aemilian law, which prescribed not the expenses of dinners,
but the kind and quality of food. Then the Antian law decreed besides
the sum of money, this also, that he who was a magistrate or a candidate
for a magistracy, should visit only certain persons. Finally, the Julian
law was promulgated under Caesar Augustus, by which two hundred
sesterces were made the limit for holy feast days ; for the Kalends, Ides,
and Nones, and certain other feast days, three hundred ; for wedding
days and banquets that followed, a thousand. Capito Ateius says there
was also an edict, whether of the divine Augustus or of Tiberius Caesar,
I do not remember, by which the expenditures for feasts on various
solemn days was extended from three hundred to two thousand sester-
Lucius Quintius Crispinus, 11-
Farther Spain. The making inq
ings was decreed to both the <.
first, into Etruria, not j^i- f
all others the most skilful in the ou!t:vs:»r>:i •• •' t!
...
introduced <anTW?» u>, but a ^,\\* operator in sacri
nor was he one who, by open religious rites, ai
ing his calling and teaching, imbued the mind:
terror, but a priest of seem £•< ; r :ur;,al HI
found at hand thai *ji\ ,n .
passion pre<liM»iinant n. his r?. at
;ie proniiMruous inteic'-ursc ot f:c«. ijo.
men; but from this store-house o{ villany proceoleil i"a<>
counterfeit seals, false evidences, and pretended di«ooveri*v
:>lace, too, p- -on and secret murders. «•
: even the twi:cs cc.»uld He found for hm
deeds were bro t h> trciclirr- Vtv tivjat of them
t served to conceal the violence, tl-at •-' - ji-nj of the loud
oisc of drt'i, s ai
INSTITUTIONS to
ces, that the increasing tide of luxury might be held at least within these
bounds. — Aulus Gellius, "Xoctes Atticae," II. 24.
XVIII. SENATUS CONSULTUM DE BACCHAXALIBUS.
1863. c
8. The following year diverted Spurius Postumius Albinus and
Quintus Marcius Philippus, from the care of armies, and wars, and
provinces, to the punishing of an intestine conspiracy. The praetors
cast lots for their provinces, Titus Maenius obtained the city juris-
diction ; Marcus Licinius Lucullus, that between citizens and foreigners ;
Caius Aurelius Scaurus, Sardinia; Publius Cornelius Sulla, Sicily;
Lucius Quintius Crispinus, Hither Spain; Caius Calpurninus Piso,
Farther Spain. The making inquisition concerning clandestine meet-
ings was decreed to both the consuls. A Greek of mean condition came,
first, into Etruria, not with one of the many trades which his nation, of
all others the most skilful in the cultivation of the mind and body, has
introduced among us, but a low operator in sacrifices, and a soothsayer ;
nor was he one who, by open religious rites, and by publicly profess-
ing his calling and teaching, imbued the minds of his followers with
terror, but a priest of secret and nocturnal rites. These mysterious
rites were, at first, imparted to a few, but afterwards communicated to
great numbers, both men and women. To their religious performances
were added the pleasures of wine and feasting, to allure a greater num-
ber of proselytes. When wine, lascivious discourse, night, and the
intercourse of the sexes had extinguished every sentiment of modesty,
then debaucheries of every kind began to be practised, as every person
found at hand that sort of enjoyment to which he was disposed by the
passion predominant in his nature. Nor were they confined to one
species of vice — the promiscuous intercourse of free-born men and wo-
men; but from this store-house of villany proceeded false witnesses,
counterfeit seals, false evidences, and pretended discoveries. From the
same place, too, proceeded poison and secret murders, so that in some
cases, not even the bodies could be found for burial. Many of their
audacious deeds were brought about by treachery, but most of them
by force ; it served to conceal the violence, that, on account of the loud
shouting, and the noise of dnims and cymbals, none of the cries uttered
by the persons suffering violence or murder could be heard abroad.
9- The infection of this mischief, like that from the contagion of
66 INSTITUTIONS
disease, spread from Etruria to Rome ; where, the size of the city afford-
ing greater room for such evils, and more means of concealment, cloaked
it at first; but information of it was at length brought to the consul,
Postumius, principally in the following manner. Publius JEbutius,
whose father had held equestrian rank in the army, was left an orphan,
and his guardians dying, he was educated under the eye of his mother
Duronia, and his stepfather Titus Sempronius Rutilus. Duronia was
entirely devoted to her husband ; and Sempronius, having managed the
guardianship in such a manner that he could not give an account of the
property, wished that his ward should be either made away with, or
bound to compliance with his will by some strong tie. The Bacchana-
lian rites were the only way to effect the ruin of the youth. His mother
told him, that, "during his sickness, she had made a vow for him, that
if he should recover, she would initiate him among the Bacchanalians ;
that being, through the kindness of the gods, bound by this vow, she
wished now to fulfill it ; that it was necessary he should preserve chastity
for ten days, and on the tenth, after he should have supped and washed
himself, she would conduct him into the place of worship." There was
a freedwoman called Hispala Fecenia, a noted courtesan, but deserving
of a better lot than the mode of life to which she had been accustomed
when very young, and a slave, and by which she had maintained herself
since her manumission. As they lived in the same neighbourhood, an
intimacy subsisted between her and ^Ebutius, which was far from being
injurious to either to the young man's character or property ; for he had
been loved and wooed by her unsolicited ; and as his friends supplied his
wants illiberally, he was supported by the generosity of this woman;
nay, to such a length did she go under the influence of her affection, that,
on the death of her patron, because she was under the protection of no
one, having petitioned the tribunes and praetors for a guardian, when she
was making her will, she constituted ./Ebutius her sole heir.
10. As such pledges of mutual love subsisted, and as neither
kept any thing secret from the other, the young man, jokingly, bid her
not be surprised if he separated himself from her for a few nights; as,
"on account of a religious duty, to discharge a vow made for his health,
he intended to be initiated among the Bacchanalians." On hearing this,
the woman, greatly alarmed, cried out, "May the gods will more favour-
ably !" affirming that "it would be better, both for him and her, to lose
their lives than that he should do such a thing:" she then imprecated
curses, vengence, and destruction, on the head of those who advised him
to such a step. The young man, surprised both at her expressions and
INSTITUTIONS 07
at the violence of her alarm, bid her refrain from curses, for "it was
his mother who ordered him to do so, with the approbation of his step-
father." "Then," said she, "your stepfather (for perhaps it is not
allowable to censure your mother) is in haste to destroy, by that act,
your chastity, your character, your hopes, and your life." To him, now
surprised by such language, and inquiring what was the matter, she said
(after imploring the favour and pardon of the gods and goddesses, if,
compelled by her regard for him, she disclosed what ought not to be
revealed,) that "when in service, she had gone into that place of wor-
ship, as an attendant on her mistress ; but that, since she had obtained
her liberty, she had never once gone near it : that she knew it to be the
receptacle of all kinds of debaucheries ; that it was well known that, for
two years past, no one older than twenty had been initiated there.
When any person was introduced he was delivered as a victim to the
priests, who led him away to a place resounding with shouts, the sound
of music, and the beating of cymbals and drums, lest his cries, while
suffering violation, should be heard abroad." She then entreated and
besought him to put an end to that matter in some way or other ; and
not to plunge himself into a situation, where he must first suffer, and
afterwards commit, every thing that was abominable. Nor did she quit
him until the young man gave her his promise to keep himself clear of
those rites.
ii. When he came home, and his mother made mention of such
things pertaining to the ceremony -as were to be performed on that day.
and on the several following days, he told her that he would not perform
any of them, nor did he intend to be initiated. His stepfather was pres-
ent at this discourse. Immediately the woman observed, that "he could
not deprive himself of the company of Hispala for ten nights ; that he
was so fascinated by the caresses and baneful influence of that serpent,
that he retained no respect for his mother or stepfather, or even the
gods themselves." His mother on one side and his stepfather on the
other loading him with reproaches, drove him out of the house, assisted
by four slaves. The youth on this repaired to his aunt /Ebutia, told her
the reason of his being turned out by his mother, and the next day, by
her advice, gave information of the affair to the consul Postumius, with-
out any witnesses of the interview. The consul dismissed him, with an
order to come again on the third day following. In the mean time, he
inquired of his mother-in-law Sulpicia, a woman of respectable char-
acter, "whether she knew an old matron called ^Ebutia, who lived on the
Aventine hill ?" When she answered that "she knew her well, and that
68 INSTITUTIONS
^Ebutia was a woman of virtue, and of the ancient purity of morals ; he
said that he required a conference with her, and that a messenger should
be sent for her to come. ^Ebutia, on receiving the message, came to
Sulpicia's house, and the consul, soon after, coming in, as if by accident,
introduced a conversation about ^Ebutius, her brother's son. The tears
of the woman burst forth, and she began to lament the unhappy lot of
the youth : "who, after being robbed of his property by persons whom it
least of all became, was then residing with her, being driven out of doors
by his mother, because, being a good youth (may the gods be propitious
to him,) he refused to be initiated in ceremonies devoted to lewdness, as
report goes.
12. The consul, thinking that he had made sufficient inquiries con-
cerning ./Ebutius, and that his testimony was unquestionable, having
dismissed ^Ebutia, requested his mother-in-law to send again to the
Aventine, and bring from that quarter Hispala, a freedwoman, not
unknown in that neighbourhood ; for there were some queries which he
wished to make of her. Hispala being alarmed because she was sent for
by a woman of such high rank and respectable character, and being
ignorant of the cause, after that she saw the lictors in the porch, the
multitude attending on the consul and the consul himself, was very near
fainting. The consul led her into a retired part of the house, and, in the
presence of his mother-in-law, told her, that "she need not be uneasy,
if she could resolve to speak the truth. She might receive a promise of
protection either from Sulpicia, a matron of such dignified character,
or from himself. That she ought to tell him, what was accustoned to be
done at the Bacchanalia, in the nocturnal orgies in the grove of Stimula.
When the woman heard this, such terror and trembling of all her limbs
seized her, that for a long time she was unable to speak ; but recovering,
at length she said, that" when she was very young, and a slave, she had
been initiated, together with her mistress; but for several years past,
since she had obtained her liberty, she knew nothing of what was done
there." The consul commanded her so far, as not having denied that
she was initiated, but charged her to explain all the rest with the same
sincerity; and told her, affirming that she knew nothing further, that
"there would not be the same tenderness or pardon extended to her,
if she should be convicted by another person, and one who had made
the whole from her, and had given him a full account of it." 13. The
woman, now thinking without a doubt that it must certainly be JEbutius
who had discovered the secret, threw herself at Sulpicia's feet, and at
first began to beseech her, "not to let the private conversation of a freed-
INSTITUTIONS • 69
woman with her lover be turned not only into a serious business, but
even capital charge;" declaring that "she had spoken of such things
merely to frighten him, and not because she knew any thing of the
kind." On this Postumius, growing angry, said, "she seemed not to
know she was speaking in the house of a most respectable matron, and
to a consul." Sulpicia raised her, terrified, from the ground, and while
she encouraged her to speak out, at the same time pacified her son-in-
law's anger. At length she took courage, and, having censured severely
the perfidy of ^butius, because he had made such a return for the extra-
ordinary kindness shown to him in that very instance, she declared that
"she stood in great dread of the gods, whose secret mysteries she was to
divulge ; and in much greater dread of the men implicated, who would
tear her asunder with their hands if she became an informer. There-
fore, she entreated this favour of Sulpicia, and likewise the consul, that
they would send her away to some place out of Italy, where she might
pass the remainder of her life in safety." The consul desired her to be
of good spirits, and said that it should be his care that she might live
securely in Rome.
Hispala then gave a full account of the origin of the mysteries.
"At first," she said, "those rites were performed by women. No man
used to be admitted. They had three stated days in the year on which
persons were initiated among the Bacchanalians, in the day-time. The
matrons used to be appointed priestesses, in rotation. Paculla Minia,
a Campanian, when priestess, made an alteration in every particular,
as if by the direction of the gods. For she first introduced men, who
were her own sons, Minucius and Herrenius, both surnamed Cerrinius ;
changed the time of celebration, from day to night ; and, instead of three
days in the year, appointed five days of initiation, in each month. From
the time that the rites were thus made common, and men were inter-
mixed with women, and the licentious freedom of the night was added,
there was nothing wicked, nothing flagitious, that had not been practised
among them. There were more frequent pollution of men, with each
other, than with women. If any were less patient in submitting to dis-
honour, or more averse to the commission of vice, they were sacrificed
as victims. To think nothing unlawful, was the grand maxim of their
religion. The men, as if bereft of reason, uttered predictions, with
frantic contortions of their bodies ; the women, in the habit of Bacchan-
tes, with their hair dishevelled, and earning blazing torches, ran down
to the Tiber ; where, dipping their torches in the water, they drew them
up again with the flame unextinguished, being composed of native sul-
70 INSTITUTIONS
phur and charcoal. They said that those men were carried off by the
gods, whom the machines laid hold of and dragged from their view
into secret caves. These were such as refused to take the oath of the
society, or to associate in their crimes, or to submit to defilement. This
number was exceedingly great now, almost a second state in themselves,
and among them were many men and women of noble families. Dur-
ing the last two years it had been a rule, that no person above the age
of twenty should be initiated ; for they sought for people of such age as
made them more liable to suffer deception and personal abuse." 14.
When she had completed her information, she again fell at the consul's
knees, and repeated the same entreaties, that he might send her out of
the country. The consul requests his mother-in-law to clear some part
of the house, into which Hispala might remove ; accordingly, an- apart-
ment was assigned her in the upper part of it, of which the stairs, open-
ing into the street, were stopped up, and the entrance made from the
inner court. Thither all Fecenia's effects were immediately removed
and her domestics sent for. ^Ebutius, also, was ordered to remove to
the house of one of the consul's clients.
When both the informers were by these means in his power, Postu-
mius represented the affair to the senate, laying before them the whole
circumstance, in due order ; the information given to him at first, and
the discoveries gained by his inquiries afterwards. Great consterna-
tion seized on the senators; not only on the public account, lest such
conspiracies and nightly meetings might be productive of secret treach-
ery and mischief, but, likewise, on account of their own particular fami-
lies, lest some of their relations might be involved in this infamous affair.
The senate voted, however, that thanks should be given to the consul
because he had investigated the matter with singular diligence, and
without exciting any alarm. They then commit to the consuls the hold-
ing an inquiry, out of the common course, concerning the Bacchanals
and their nocturnal orgies. They order them to take care that the
informers, zEbutius and Fecenia, might suffer no injury on that account ;
and to invite other informers in the matter, by offering rewards. They
ordered that the officials in those rites, whether men or women, should be
sought for, not only at Rome, but also throughout all the market towns
and places of assembly, and be delivered over to the power of the con-
suls ; and also that proclamation should be made in the city of Rome,
and published through all Italy, that "no persons initiated in the Bacch-
analian rites should presume to come together or assemble on account
of those rites, or to perform any such kind of worship ;" and above all,
INSTITUTIONS 71
that search should be made for those who had assembled or conspired
for personal abuse, or for any other flagitious practices. The senate
passed these decrees. The consuls directed the curule acdiles to make
strict inquiry after all the priests of those mysteries, and to keep such as
they could apprehend in custody until their trial ; they at the same time
charged the plebeian aediles to take care that no religious ceremonies
should be performed in private. To the capital triumvirs the task was
assigned to post watches in proper places of the city, and to use vigilance
in preventing any meetings by night. In order likewise to guard
against fires, five assistants were joined to the triumvirs, so that each
might have the charge of the buildings in his own separate district, on
this side the Tiber.
15. After despatching these officers to their several employments,
the consuls mounted the rostrum ; and, having summoned an assembly
of the people, one of the consuls, when he had finished the solemn form
of prayer which the magistrates are accustomed to pronounce before
they address the people, proceeded thus : "Romans, to no former assem-
bly was this solemn supplication to the gods more suitable or even more
necessary : as it serves to remind you, that these are the deities whom
your forefathers pointed out as the objects of your worship, veneration,
and prayers: and not those which infatuated men's minds with corrupt
and foreign modes of religion, and drove them, as if goaded by the
furies, to every lust and every vice. I am at a loss to know what I
should conceal, or how far I ought to speak out ; for I dread lest, if I
leave you ignorant of any particular, I should give room for careless-
ness, or if I disclose the whole, that I should too much awaken your
fears. Whatever I shall say, be assured that it is less than the magni-
tude and atrociousness of the affair would justify: exertions will be
used by us that it may be sufficient to set us properlyon ourguard. That
the Bacchanalian rites have subsisted for some time past in every coun-
try in Italy, and are at present performed in many parts of this city also,
I am sure you must have been informed, not only by report, but by
the nightly noises and horrid yells that resound through the whole city ;
but still you are ignorant of the nature of that business. Part of you
think it is some kind of worship of the gods ; others, some excusable
sport and amusement, and that, whatever it may be, it concerns but a
few. As regards the number, if I tell you that they are many thousands,
that you would be immediately terrified to excess is a necessary conse-
quence; unless I further acquaint you who and what sort of persons
they are. First, then, a great part of them are women, and this was the
72 INSTITUTIONS
source of the evil ; the rest are males, but nearly resembling women ;
actors and pathics in the vilest lewdness ; night revellers, driven frantic
by wine, noise of instruments, and clamours. The conspiracy, as yet,
has no strength ; but it has abundant means of acquiring strength, for
they are becoming more numerous every day. Your ancestors would
not allow that you should ever assemble casually, without some good
reason ; that is, either when the standard was erected on the Janiculum,
and the army led out on occasion of elections; or when the tribunes
proclaimed a meeting of the commons, or some of the magistrates sum-
moned you to it. And they judged it necessary, that whatever a mul-
titude was, there should be a lawful governor of that multitude present.
Of what kind do you suppose are the meetings of these people ? In the
first place, held in the night, and in the next, composed promiscuously
of men and women. If you knew at what ages the males are initiated,
you would feel not only pity but also shame for them. Romans, can
you think youths initiated, under such oaths as theirs, are fit to be made
soldiers ? That arms should be intrusted with wretches brought out of
that temple of obscenity? Shall these, contaminated with their own
foul debaucheries and those of others, be champions for the chastity
of your wives and children ?
16. "But the mischief were less, if they were only effeminated by.
their practices ; of that the disgrace would chiefly affect themselves ; if
they refrained their hands from outrage, and their thoughts from fraud.
But never was there in the state an evil of so great a magnitude, or one
that extended to so many persons or so many acts of wickedness. What-
ever deeds of villany have, during late years, been committed through
lust; whatever, through fraud; whatever, through violence ; they have
all, be assured, proceeded from that association alone. They have not
yet perpetuated all the crimes for which they combined. The impious
assembly at present confines itself to outrages on private citizens ; be -
cause it has not yet acquired force sufficient to crush the common-
wealth ; but the evil increases and spreads daily ; it is already too great
for the private ranks of life to contain it, and aims its views at the
body of the state. Unless you take timely precautions, Romans, their
nightly assembly may become as large as this, held in open day, and
legally summoned by a consul. Now they one by one dread you col-
lected together in the assembly; presently, when you shall have sepa-
rated and retired to your several dwellings, in town and country, they
will again come together, and will hold a consultation on the means of
their own safety, and, at the same time, of your destruction. Thus united,
INSTITUTIONS 73
they will cause terror to every one of you. Each of you .there fore, ought
to pray that his kindred may have behaved with wisdom and prudence ;
and if lust, if madness, has dragged any of them into that abyss, to con-
sider such a person as the relation of those with whom he has conspired
for every disgraceful and reckless act, and not as one of your own. I
am not secure, lest some, even of yourselves, may have erred through
mistake ; for nothing is more deceptive in appearance than false religion.
When the authority of the gods is held out as a pretext to cover vice,
fear enters our minds, lest, in punishing the crimes of men, we may
violate some divine right connected therewith. Numberless decisions of
the pontiffs, decrees of the senate, and even answers of the haruspjces,
free you from religious scruples of this character. How often in the
ages of our fathers was it given in charge to the magistrates, to prohibit
the performance of any foreign religious rites ; to banish strolling sacri-
fices and soothsayers from the forum, the circus, and the city ; to search
for, and burn, books of divination ; and to abolish every mode of sacri-
ficing that was not conformable to the Roman practice ! For they, com-
pletely versed in every divine and human law, maintained, that nothing
tended so strongly to the subversion of religion as sacrifice, when we
offered it not after the institutions of our forefathers, but after foreign
customs. Thus much I thought necessary to mention to you before-
hand, that no vain scruple might disturb your minds when you should
see us demolishing the places resorted to by the Bacchanalians, and dis-
persing their impious assemblies. We shall do all these things with the
favour and approbation of the gods ; who, because they were indignant
that their divinity was dishonoured by those people's lusts and crimes,
have drawn forth their proceedings from hidden darkness into the open
light; and who have directed them to be exposed, not that they may
escape with impunity, but in order that they may be punished and sup-
pressed. The senate have committed to me and my colleague, an in-
quisition extraordinary concerning that affair. What is requisite to be
done by ourselves, in person, we will do with energy. The charge of
posting watches through the city, during the night, we have committed
to the inferior magistrates ; and, for your parts, it is incumbent on you
to execute vigorously whatever duties are assigned you, and in the sev-
eral places where each will be placed, to perform whatever orders you
shall receive, and to use your best endeavors that no danger or tumult
may arise from the treachery of the party involved in the guilt."
17. They then ordered the decrees of the senate to be read, and
published a reward for any discoverer who should bring any of the
V 3-5
74 INSTITUTIONS
guilty before them, or give information against any of the absent, add-
ing, that "if any person accused should fly, they would limit a certain
day upon which, if he did not answer when summoned, he would be
condemned in his absence ; and if any one should be charged who was
out of Italy, they would allow him a longer time, if he should wish to
come and make his defence." They then issued an edict, that "no per-
son whatever should presume to buy or sell any thing for the purpose
of leaving the country ; or to receive or conceal, or by any means aid the
fugitives." On the assembly being dismissed, great terror spread
throughout the city; nor was it confined merely within the walls, or to
the Roman territory, for every where throughout the whole of Italy
alarm began to be felt, when the letters from the guest-friends were re-
ceived, concerning the decree of the senate, and what passed in the
assembly, and the edict of the cansuls. During the night, which suc-
ceeded the day in which the affair was made public, great numbers, at-
tempting to fly, were seized, and brought back by the triumvirs, who
had posted guards at all gates ; and informations were lodged against
many, some of whom, both men and women, put themselves to death.
Above seven thousand men and women are said to have taken the oath
of the association. But it appeared that the heads of the conspiracy
were the two Catinii, Marcus and Caius, Roman plebeians; Lucius
Opiturnius, a Faliscian ; and Minius Cerrinius, a Campanian : that from
these proceeded all their criminal practices, and that these were the
chief priests and founders of the sect. Care was taken that they should
be apprehended as soon as possible. They were brought before the con-
suls, and, confessing their guilt, caused no delay to the ends of justice.
1 8. But so great were the numbers that fled from the city, that
because the lawsuits and property of many persons were going to ruin,
the praetors, Titus Maenius and Marcus Licinius, were obliged, under the
direction of the senate, to adjourn their courts for thirty days, until the
inquiries should be finished by the consuls. The same deserted state of
the law-courts, since the persons, against whom charges were brought,
did not appear to answer, nor could be found in Rome, necessitated the
consuls to make a circuit of the country towns, and there to make their
inquisitions and hold the trials. Those who, as it appeared, has been
only initiated, and had made after the priest, and in the most solemn
form, the prescribed imprecations, in which the accursed conspiracy
for the perpetration of every crime and lust was contained, but who had
not themselves committed, or compelled others to commit, any of those
acts to which they were bound by the oath — all such they left in prison.
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But those who had forcibly committed personal defilements or murders,
or were stained with the guilt of false evidence, counterfeit seals, forged
wills, or other frauds, all these they punished with death. A greater
number were executed than thrown into prison; indeed, the multitude
of men and women who suffered in both ways, was very considerable.
The consuls delivered the women, who were condemned, to their rela-
tions, or to those under whose guardianship they were, that they might
inflict the punishment in private; if there did not appear any proper
person of the kind to execute the sentence, the punishment was inflicted
in public. A charge was then given to demolish all the places where the
Bacchanalians had held their meetings ; first in Rome, and then through-
out all Italy; excepting those wherein should be found some ancient
altar or consecrated statue. With regard to the future, the senate passed
a decree, "that no Bacchanalian rites should be celebrated in Rome or in
Italy;" and ordering that, "in case any person should believe some
such kind of worship incumbent upon him, and necessary; and that he
could not, without offence to religion, and incurring guilt, omit it, he
should represent this to the city praetor, and the praetor should lay the
business before the senate. If permission were granted by the senate,
when not less than one hundred members were present, then he might
perform those rites, provided that no more than five persons should be
present at the sacrifice, and that they should have no common stock of
money, nor any president of the ceremonies, nor priest."
19. Another decree connected with this was then made, on a mo-
tion of the consul, Quintus Marcius, that "the business respecting the
persons who had served the consuls as informers should be proposed to
the senate in its original form, when Spurius Postumius should have
finished his inquiries, and returned to Rome." They voted that Minius
Cerrinus, the Campanian, should be sent to Ardea, to be kept in custody
there; and that a caution should be given to the magistrates of that city,
to guard him with more than ordinary care, so as to prevent not only his
escaping, but his having an opportunity of committing suicide. Spur-
ius Postumius some time after came to Rome, and on his proposing the
question, concerning the reward to be given to Publius ^butius and
Hispala Fecenia, because the Bacchanalian ceremonies were discovered
by their exertions, the senate passed a vote, that "the city quaestors
should give to each of them, out of the public treasury, one hundred
thousand asses; and that the consuls should desire the plebeian tri-
bunes to propose to the commons as soon as convenient, that the cam-
paigns of Publius ^butius should be considered as served, that he
76 INSTITUTIONS
should not become a soldier against his wishes, nor should any censor
assign him a horse at the public charge." They voted also, that "His-
pala Fecenia should enjoy the privileges of alienating her property by
gift or deed ; of marrying out of her rank, and of choosing a guardian,
as if a husband had conferred them by will ; that she should be at liberty
to wed a man of honourable birth, and that there should be no disgrace
or ignominy to him who should marry her; and that the consuls and
praetors then in office, and their successors, should take care that no in-
jury should be offered to that woman, and that she might live in safety.
That the senate wished, and thought proper, that all these things should
be so ordered." — All these particulars were proposed to the commons,
and executed, according to the vote of the senate; and full permission
was given to the consuls to determine respecting the impunity and re-
wards of the other informers. — Livy, XXXIX, 8-19.
THE DECREE
Quintus Marcius, the son of Lucius, and Spurius Postumius, con-
sulted the senate on the Nones of October (7th), at the temple of
the Bellonae. Marcus Claudius, son of Marcus, Lucius Valerius, son
of Publius, and Quintus Minucius, son of Gaius, were the committee
for drawing up the report.
Regarding the Bacchanalia, it was resolved to give the following
directions to those who are in alliance with us :
No one of them is to possess a place where the festivals of Bacchus
are celebrated; if there are any who claim that it is necessary for them
to have such a place, they are to come to Rome to the praetor urbanus,
and the senate is to decide on those matters, when their claims have
been heard, provided that not less than 100 senators are present when
the affair is discussed. No man is to be a Bacchantian, neither a Roman
citizen, nor one of the Latin name, nor any of our allies unless they
come to the praetor urbanus, and he in accordance with the opinion of
the senate expresed when not less than 100 senators are present at the
discussion, shall have given leave. Carried.
No man is to be a priest; no one, either man or woman, is to be an
officer (to manage the temporal affairs of the organization) ; nor is any-
one of them to have charge of a common treasury ; no one shall appoint
either man or woman to be master or to act as master; henceforth they
shall not form conspiracies among themselves, stir up any disorder,
make mutual promises or agreements, or interchange pledges; no one
shall observe the sacred rites either in public or private or outside the
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city, unless he comes to the prsetor urbanus, ami he, in accordance with
the opinion of the senate, expressed when no less than 100 senators are
present at the discussion, shall have given leave. Carried.
No one in a company of more than five persons altogether, men and
women, shall observe the sacred rites, nor in that company shall there be
present more than two men or three women, unless in accordance with
the opinion of the praetor urbanus and the senate as written above.
See that you declare it in the assembly (contio) for not less than
three market days; that you may know the opinion of the senate this was
their judgment: if there are any who have acted contrary to what was
written above, they have decided that a proceeding for a capital offense
should be instituted against them ; the senate has justly decreed that you
should inscribe this on a brazen tablet, and that you should order it to be
placed where it can be easiest read; see to it that the revelries of Bac-
chus, if there be any, except in case there be concerned in the matter
something sacred, as was written above, be disbanded within ten days
after this letter shall be delivered to you.
In the Teuranian field.
TRANSLATED BY NINA E. WESTON.
XIX. THE GRACCHI
As the Romans conquered the Italian tribes, one after another, in
war, they seized part of the lands and founded towns there, or placed
colonies of their own in those already established, and used them as
garrisons. They allotted the cultivated part of the land obtained
through war, to settlers, or rented or sold it. Since they had not time
to assign the part which lay waste by the war, and this was usually
the greater portion, they issued a proclamation that for the time being
any who cared to work it could do so for a share of the annual produce,
a tenth part of the grain and a fifth of the fruit. A part of the
animals, both of the oxen and sheep was exacted from those keeping
herds. They did this to increase the Italian peoples, considered the
hardest working of races, in order to have plenty of supporters at
home. But the very opposite result followed ; for the wealthy, getting
hold of most of the unassigned lands, and being encouraged through
the length of time elapsed to think that they would never be ousted,
and adding, part by purchase and part by violence, the little farms
of their poor neighbors to their possessions, came to work great dis-
78 INSTITUTIONS
tricts instead of one estate, using to this end slaves as laborers and
herders, because free laborers might be drafted from agriculture into
the army. The mere possession of slaves brought them great profit
through the number of their children, which increased because they
were absolved from service in the wars. Thus the powerful citizens
became immensely wealthy and the slave class all over the country
multiplied, while the Italian race decreased in numbers and vigor, held
down as they were by poverty, taxes, and military service. If they had
any rest from these burdens, they wasted their time in idleness, because
the land was in the hands of the wealthy, who used slaves instead of
free laborers.
Because of these facts the people began to fear that they should
no longer have enough Italian allies, and that the state itself would
be imperiled by such great numbers of slaves. Not seeing any cure
.for the trouble, as it was not practicable nor entirely fair to dispossess
men of their possessions so long occupied, including their own trees,
buildings and improvements, a decree was at one time got through by
the efforts of the tribunes that no one should hold more than five
hundred jugera (about three hundred acres), or graze more than a
hundred cattle or five hundred sheep upon it. To make sure the
law was observed, it was provided, also, that there should be a stated
number of freemen employed on the lands, whose duty it should be
to watch and report what took place. Those holding lands under the
law were compelled to make oath to obey it, and penalties were pro-
vided against breaking it. It was thought that the surplus land would
soon be subdivided amongst the poor in small lots, but there was not
the slightest respect shown for the law or the oaths. The few that
seemed to give some heed to them fraudulently made over their lands
to their relatives, but most paid no attention to the law whatever.
At last Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus, an eminent man, ambitious
for honor, a forceful orator, and for these causes well known to every-
body, made an eloquent speech, while tribune, on the subject of the
Italian race, deploring that a people so warlike, and related in descent
to the Romans, were gradually sinking into pauperism and decreasing
in numbers, with no hope of betterment. He denounced the swarm
of slaves as useless in war and faithless to their masters, and instanced
the recent disaster brought upon the owners in Sicily by their slaves,
where the requirements of agriculture had greatly increased their
number. He called to mind, also, the war waged by the Romans
against the slaves, a war neither trivial nor short, but long drawn out
INSTITUTIONS 79
and filled with misfortunes and perils. After this address he once
more brought forward the law providing that no one should hold more
than five hundred jugcra of the public land, but he made this addition
to the previous law, that the sons of the present occupants might each
hold half as large an allotment and that the surplus land should be
divided among the poor by triumvirs, that were to be changed yearly.
This greatly vexed the wealthy, because, on account of the trium-
viers, they could no longer pass by the law as they had done before;
nor could they purchase the lands allotted to others, because Gracchus
had provided against this by prohibiting sales. They gathered into
groups, complaining and charging the poor with seizing the results
of their cultivation, their vineyards, and their houses. Some said they
had paid their neighbors the price of the land ; were they to lose their
money as well as the land? Others declared that the graves of their
fathers were in the ground that had been assigned to them in the
partition of their family estate. Others stated that their wives' dowries
had been spent on the land or that it had been given to their own
daughters as such. Loaners of money could show advances made on
this security. All sorts of complaints and denunciations were heard
at the same time. On the other hand rose the wails of the poor, crying
that they had been reduced from plenty to the lowest pauperism and
from that to enforced lack of offspring, because they could not support
children. They enumerated the services they had rendered in war,
by which this very land had been obtained, and were indignant at
being despoiled of their part of the public property. They upbraided
the wealthy for using slaves, who were always faithless and sulky, and
for that cause useless in war, in the place of freemen, citizens and men
at arms. While these classes were complaining and reproaching each
other, a vast multitude, consisting of colonists or dwellers in the free
cities, or others in some way interested in the lands and with similar
fears, thronged into town and sided with their respective parties.
Angry at each other, they gathered in riotous crowds, made bold by
numbers, and, waiting for the new law, tried in every way, some to
obstruct its passage and others to carry it. Party spirit in addition
to individual interest stimulated both sides in the preparation against
each other which they were making for the voting day.
What Gracchus sought in framing the law was the increase, not
of wealth, but of serviceable population. He was highly enthused with
the usefulness of the proposal and, believing that nothing more bene-
ficial or desirable could happen to Italy, he attached no weight to
80 INSTITUTIONS
the difficulties involved. When the time came for voting he brought
forward at some length many other arguments, asking whether it was
not right to allot among the common people what belonged to them
in common, whether a citizen did not always deserve more concern
than a slave, whether a man that fought in the army was not more
serviceable than one that did not, and whether one that had an interest
in the country was not the surer to be faithful to the public weal. He
did not tarry long on this contrast between freemen and slaves, which
he thought debasing, but plunged at once into an outline of their hopes
and fears for the state, saying that the Romans had obtained most of
their lands by conquest and that they had the opportunities of acquiring
the rest of the inhabitable world, but now the question most doubtful
of all was whether, with plenty of warlike men, they should conquer
the rest, or whether, through their internal dissensions and weaknesses,
their foes should deprive them of what they already had. After en-
larging upon the honor and wealth on one side and the peril and need
of apprehension on the other, he warned the rich to reflect, and said
that for the accomplishment of such hopes they should be willing to
give this very land as a gift, if need be, to men that would bring up
offspring, and not by wrangling over trivial matters, lose sight of the
more important ones— especially since they were getting full pay for
the labor they had expended in the clear title to five hundred jugera of
land, in a high state of cultivation, to each of them without cost, and
half as much again for each son to those that had them. After saying
much else in the same strain and getting the poor aroused, as well
as those that were influenced by reason rather than the hope of profit,
he commanded the clerk to read the measure proposed.
Another tribune, Marcus Octavius, who had been prevailed on
by those holding land to interpose his veto (for among the Romans the
veto of the tribune always had absolute authority), ordered the clerk
to be silent. Upon this Gracchus rebuked him sternly and adjourned
the meeting to the next day. This time he placed quite a force around,
as if to coerce Octavius against his will, and with threats bade the
clerk read the measure proposed to the assemblage. He began read-
ing, but upon Octavius again interposing his veto, stopped. Then the
tribunes commenced quarreling with each other, and something of an
uproar broke forth from among the people. The influential citizens
begged the tribunes to lay their disagreements before the senate for
arbitration. Gracchus acted upon this advice, thinking the measure
to be agreeable to all patriotic people, and hurried to the senate. • As
INSTITUTIONS 81
he found only a few supporters there, and was reproached by the
wealthy, he rushed back to the forum and announced that he would
take a vote in the assembly on the following day upon the law, and
also upon the tenor of office of Octavius, to find out whether a tribune
(of the plebs) acting contrary to the welfare of the plebs could con-
tinue to retain his magistracy.
So he did, and when Octavius, not at all intimidated, again put
in his veto, Gracchus had the pebbles distributed to vote on him first.
As the first tribe voted to impeach Octavius, Gracchus, turning to him,
pleaded with him to withdraw his veto. As he would not do so, the
votes of the other tribes were taken. At that time there were thirty-
five tribes. The seventeen voting first wrath fully approved the meas-
ure. If the eighteenth should do likewise it would constitute a
majority. Once more in full view of the people Gracchus passionately
begged Octavius, in his great Jeopardy, not to obstruct this most
devout work, so beneficial to all Italy, and not to dash down the hopes
so deeply grounded among the people, whose wishes he ought, as a
tribune, the rather to share in, and not to run the risk of losing his
office by public impeachment. Upon saying this he called the gods
to witness that he did not of his own accord do any injury to his
colleague, but, as Octavius was still firm, he continued taking the
vote, and Octavius was thereupon reduced to the rank of private citizen
and stole away unnoticed.
Quintus Mummius was elected tribune in his stead and the agrar-
ian law was passed. The three men first appointed to allot the land
were Gracchus himself, the framer of the measure, his brother of the
same name, and his father-in-law, Appius Claudius, for the people
were still afraid that the law might not be executed unless Gracchus,
with all his family, should be placed at the helm. Gracchus became
enormously popular on account of the law and was attended home
by the mass of the people, as if he were the founder, not merely of one
city or people, but of all the states of Italy. After this the victors
returned to the fields whence they had journeyed to conduct the affair,
while the defeated ones stayed in the city and went over the subject
with one another, feeling incensed and declaring that when Gracchus
became a private citizen he would be made sorry that he had dishonored
the sacred and inviolable office of tribune and had opened the way to
such a flood of strife in Italy.
At the coming of summer the announcement of the election of
tribunes was made, and as the day for voting drew near, it was clear
82 INSTITUTIONS
that the wealthy were vigorously aiding the election of those most op-
posed to Gracchus. Fearing that misfortune would come upon him if he
should not be re-elected for the next year, Gracchus sent to his friends
in the fields to attend the assembly, but as their time was taken up
with the harvest he was forced, when the day fixed for the voting
was at hand, to depend upon the plebeians of the city. So he went about
canvassing each one to elect him tribune for the next year, on account
of the jeopardy he had put himself in on their account. When the
voting commenced, the first two tribes went for Gracchus. The
wealthy held that it was not constitutional for a man to hold the office
twice in succession. The tribune, Rubrius, who had been selected by
lot to preside over the comitia, was in doubt upon the question, and
Mummius, who had been elected instead of Octavius, besought him to
hand the assembly over to his charge. So he did, but the other
tribunes objected that the chairmanship should be decided by lot, main-
taining that when Rubrius, who had been selected in that way, relin-
quished it, the casting of lots ought to be done all over again. Since
there was a deal of wrangling on this point, Gracchus, who was being
bested, postponed the election until the next day. In deep despondency
he robed himself in black, though still in office, and led his son about
the forum, introducing him to each man and putting him in their
care, as if he himself were about to die at the hands of his foes.
The poor were afflicted with great grief, and justly so, both on
account of themselves, for they thought that they would no longer
dwell in a free state under equitable laws, but were to be reduced to
serfdom by the rich, and on account of Gracchus personally, who had
brought upon himself such peril for their sakes. Therefore, they all
escorted him with lamentations to his home at night time, and bade
him to take heart for the next day. Gracchus gathered courage, and
calling together his friends before daylight, imparted to them a sign
to be made for a resort to violence. Then he placed himself in the
temple on the Capitoline hill, where the election was to be held, and
put himself in the middle of the comitia. As he was checked by the
other tribunes and by the wealthy, who would not permit the votes to
be taken on this question, he gave the sign. A sudden uproar arose
from those who saw it and the resort to arms followed. Part of the
faction of Gracchus took their stand about him like a body-guard.
Others that had girded themselves, laid hold of the fasces and staves
in the hands of lictors and shattered them into pieces. The rich were
thrown out of the comitia with so much tumult and so many woflnds
INSTITUTIONS 83
that the tribunes rushed from their seats in consternation, and the
priests closed the doors of the temple. Many ran hither and thither
and cast wild reports abroad. Some said that Gracchus had impeached
all the other tribunes and this was given credence because none of
them were in sight. Others said that he had declared himself tribune
for the next year without a vote.
Under these conditions the senate came together at the temple
of Faith. It is astounding to me that they never thought of electing a
dictator in this crisis, though they had often been defended by the
rule of an absolute magistrate amid such periods of danger. Though
this expedient had been found very serviceable in ancient times, few
thought of it either then or afterwards. After coming to the decision
they arrived at, they marched to the Capitol, the high priest, Cornelius
Scipio Xasica, at their head, crying out in a sonorous voice, "Let those
who would save the state follow me." He gathered the border of his
toga around his head, either to attract a larger crowd to follow him
by his peculiar appearance, or to make for himself, as it were, a helmet
as a signal for violence to the spectators, or to hide from the gods
what he was about to do. When he came to the temple and stepped
forward against the adherents of Gracchus, they yielded to the prestige
of so eminent a citizen, for they saw the senate behind him. The
senators wrenched clubs from the very hands of the followers of
Gracchus, or with pieces of torn-up benches or other things that had
been brought for the use of the comitia, began mauling them and in
hot pursuit, drove them over the precipice. In the riot many followers
of Gracchus were killed and Gracchus himself, being seized near the
temple, was slain at the door near the statues of the kings. All the
corpses were thrown into the Tiber at night.
Thus died on the Capitol and while still tribune, (Tiberius) Grac-
chus, the son of the Gracchus who was twice consul and of Cornelia,
the daughter of the Scipio that conquered Carthage. He lost his
life because he followed up an excellent plan in too lawless a way.
This awful occurrence, the first of the kind that took place in the
public assembly, was never long without a new parallel thereafter. On
the matter of the killing of Gracchus, the city was divided between
grief and joy. Some sorrowed for themselves and him and bewailed
the existing state of affairs, believing that the republic no longer ex-
isted, but had been usurped by coercion and violence. Others con-
gratulated themselves that even-thing had turned out just as they
wanted it to. This event happened at the time that Aristonicus was
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struggling with the Romans for the mastery of Asia.
After Tiberius Gracchus was killed Appius Claudius (his father-
in-law) died and Fulvius Flaccus and Papirius Carbo were selected,
together with the younger (Gaius) Gracchus, to divide the land. As
those in possession failed to hand in lists of what they held, it was
announced that informers should give evidence against them. A large
number of perplexing lawsuits sprang up. Where a new field had
been purchased next to an old one, or where the land had been divided
with allies, the whole section had to be gone over in the surveying of
this one field, in order to discover how it had been sold or partitioned.
Some owners had not kept their bills of sale or deeds of allotment,
and even those that were unearthed were often ambiguous. On the
remeasuring of the land, some had to give up orchards and farm
buildings for bare fields. Others were moved from tilled to unfilled
lai'ds or to swamps or ponds. In short, the surveying had been care-
lessly done when the land was first taken away from the enemy. Since
the first proclamation sanctioned anyone's cultivating the unassigned
land that wished to, men had been impelled to till the parts lying next
to their own land until the boundary line between the two had been
lost sight of. The lapse of time had also made many changes. Thus,
what injustice had been done By the rich, though great, was not easily
discovered. So nothing less than a general commotion followed, every-
body being ousted from his own place and set down in somebody else's.
The Italian allies that remonstrated at this disturbance and es-
pecially against the lawsuits suddenly brought against them, selected
Cornelius Scipio, the destroyer of Carthage, to protect them from these
annoyances. As he had used their powerful aid in war, he did not
like to refuse their request. So, coming into the senate, he explained
the difficulty in enforcing Gracchus's law, although, for the sake of
the plebs, he did not openly attack it. He held that these cases ought
not to be judged by the triumvirs, as they did not have the confidence
of the disputants, but should be handed over to others. As his point
of view seemed just, they let themselves be persuaded, and the consul,
Tuditanus, was chosen to sit in these cases. But when he began on
the matter he saw its difficulties, and then led the army against the Illy-
rians as an excuse to get out of acting as judge, and since no one
could bring the cases before the' triumvirs they fell into abeyance.
Hence ill feeling and resentment sprung up against Scipio among the
people, because they saw him for whose sake they ha'd often taken
sides against the aristocracy and brought upon themselves hostility,
INSTITUTIONS 85
twice electing him consul contrary to law, now siding with the Italian
allies against them. When Scipio's foes saw this, they charged that he
was intent on annulling the law of Gracchus entirely, and to that end
was about to incite armed violence and bloodshed.
When the populace heard these accusations they were much dis-
turbed until Scipio, who had placed near his couch at home one evening
a tablet, on which he intended during the night to write the speech
he was to deliver before the people, was found dead on his couch with-
out a wound. Whether this was caused by Cornelia, the mother of
the Gracchi, assisted by her daughter, Sempronia, who was the wife
of Scipio, but unloved and unaffectionate because she was deformed
and childless, to prevent the law of Gracchus being abolished, or
whether, as some believed, he committed suicide because he saw clearly
that he could not do what he had said he would, is not certain. Some
say that slaves, after being exposed to torture, confessed that unknown
persons, who were brought through the rear of the house by night,
strangled him, and that those who knew about it refrained from telling
because the people were still incensed at him and were glad he died.
So Scipio perished, and though he had been of enormous service to
the Roman state, he was not given the honor of a public funeral. Thus
does the irritation of the moment efface the appreciation of past service.
This event, important enough in itself, happened as an incident of the
undertaking of Gracchus.
Even after this those holding the lands long put off upon various
excuses the division of their holdings. Some thought the Italian allies,
who objected to it most strenuously, should be admitted to Roman
citizenship, in order that, out of thankfulness for so great a favor, they
should not longer protest about the land. The Italians were ready to
accept this compromise, since they had rather have Roman citizenship
that the ownership of these fields. Fluvius Flaccus, at that time both
consul and triumvir, did his best to earn,' it through, but the senate
was wroth at the proposition to make their subjects of equal rank with
themselves. So the effort was dropped and the people, who had been
so long hopeful of obtaining land, began to be discouraged. While
they were in this frame of mind, Gaius Gracchus, who had made him-
self popular as a triumvir, stood for the tribuneship. He was the
younger brother of Tiberius Gracchus, the originator of the law. He
had kept silent concerning the killing of his brother for some time,
but as some of the senate treated him disdainfully, he offered himself
as a candidate for the tribuneship, and as soon as he was elected to
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this high office began to intrigue against the senate. He proposed that
a monthly distribution of grain should be made to each citizen at the
expense of the state. This had not been the custom prior to this.
Thus he put himself at the head of the populace at a bound by one
stroke of politics, in which he had the assistance of Flavius Flaccus.
Right after this he was elected tribune for the next year also, for in
cases where there were not enough candidates the law permitted the
people to fill out the list from those still in office.
In this way Gaius Gracchus became tribune a second time. After,
so to say, buying the plebs, he began to court the knights, who hold
the rank midway between the senate and the plebs, by another similar
stroke of politics. He handed over the courts of justice, which had
become distrusted on account of bribery, from the senators to the
knights, upbraiding the senators particularly for the recent instances of
Aurelius Cotta, Salinator, and thirdly Manius Aquilius (the one that
conquered Asia), all shameless bribe-takers, who had been set free
by the judges, even though envoys sent to denounce them were still
present, going about making disgraceful charges against them. The
senate was very much ashamed of such things and agreed to the law
and the people passed it. Thus the courts of justice were Handed
over from the senate to the knights. It is reported that soon after the
enactment of this law Gracchus made the remark that he had destroyed
the supremacy of the senate once for all, and this remark of his has
been corroborated by experience throughout the course of history. The
privilege of judging all Romans and Italians, even the senators them-
selves, in all affairs of property, civil rights and exile, raised the knights
like governors over them, and placed the senators on the same plane
as subjects. As the knights also voted to support the power of the
tribunes in the comitia and received whatever they asked from them
in return, they became more and more dangerous opponents to the
senators. Thus it soon resulted that the supremacy in the state was
reversed, the real mastery going into the hands of the knights and
only the honor to the senate. The knights went so far in using their
power over the senators as to openly mock them beyond all reason.
They, too, imbibed the habit of bribe-taking and, after once tasting
such immense acquisitions, they drained the draught even more shame-
fully and recklessly than the senators had done. They hired informers
against the rich and put an end to prosecutions for bribe-taking en-
tirely, partly by united action and partly by actual violence, so that
the pursuit of such investigations was done away with entirely. THus.
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the judiciary law started another factional contest that lasted for a
long time and was fully as harmful as the previous ones.
Gracchus constructed long highways over Italy and thus made an
army of contractors and workmen dependent on his favor and ren-
dered them subject to his every wish. He proposed the establishment
of a number of colonies. He prompted the Latin allies to clamor for
all the privileges of Roman citizenship, for the senate could not be-
comingly deny them to the kinsmen of the Romans. He attempted
to give the right to vote to those allies that were not permitted to take
part in Roman elections, so as to have their assistance in the passing
of measures that he had in mind. The senate was greatly perturbed
at this and commanded the consuls to set forth the following procla-
mation, "No one that does not have the right to vote shall remain in
the city or. come within forty stadia of it during the time that the
voting is taking place upon these laws." The senate also got Livius
Drusus, another tribune, to intercede his veto against the measures
brought forward by Gracchus without telling the plebs his reasons
for so doing ; for a tribune did not have to give his reasons for a veto.
In order to curry favor with the plebs they gave Drusus permission
to found twelve colonies, and the people were so much taken with this
that they began to jeer at the measures that Gracchus proposed.
As he had lost the good will of the populace, Gracchus set sail for
Africia along with Fulvius Flaccus, who, after his consulship, had
been elected tribune through the same causes for which Gracchus had.
A colony had been assigned to Africa, because of the reported richness
of its soil, and these men had been selected as its founders for the
very sake of getting rid of them for awhile, in order that the senate
might be untrammeled by demagogy for a time. They laid out a town
for the colony in the same place where Carthage had formerly lain,
paying no heed to the fact that Scipio, when he razed it, had consigned
it with imprecations to eternal sheep-gazing. They allotted six
thousand colonists to this town, as against the smaller number assigned
by law in order thus to further conciliate the people. Then, returning
to Rome they solicited the six thousand from all Italy. The managers
that had remained in Africa laying out the town sent back word that
wolves had dragged out and carried far and wide the boundary marks
placed by Gracchus and Fulvius, and the sooth-sayers held this to
be a bad omen for the colony. So the senate called together the comitia
proposing to repeal the law authorizing the colony. When Gracchus
and Fulvius saw that they were about to fail in this affair they became
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desperate and charged that the senate had lied about the wolves. The
rashest of the plebs, with daggers in hand, gathered about them and
accompanied them to the assembly where the comitia was to be held
in regard to the colony.
The people were already assembled and Fulvius had commenced
to address them about the matter when Gracchus reached the Capitol
surrounded by a body-guard of his friends. Agitated by his knowledge
of the unwonted schemes in hand, he turned away from the meeting
place of the comitia, passing into the porch, and walked about, waiting
to learn what would take place. Just then a pleb by the name of
Antyllus, who was making a sacrifice in the porch, saw him thus
troubled in mind, and, grasping him by the hand, because he had
either heard or guessed something or was prompted through some
impulse to speak to him, begged him to spare his fatherland. Still
more agitated and starting as if caught in the act of a crime, Gracchus
gave a sharp glance at the man. One of his partisans, without any
sign or order being given, gathered from the piercing look itself given
by Gracchus to Antyllus, that the moment to strike was at hand, and
thought he should render Gracchus a kindness by giving the first blow ;
so he drew forth his dagger and stabbed Antyllus. An uproar was
raised, the dead man being seen in the midst of the throng, and every
one outside fled away from the temple, fearful of a similar fate.
Gracchus went into the comitia in order to exonerate himself of the
act, but no one would even listen to him. Everyone turned away from
him as from one tainted with bloodshed. Gracchus and Flaccus were
confounded, and having missed the opportunity to carry out their
plans, they hurried home along with their adherents. The rest of the
great mass of people stayed in the forum during the night, as if some
fearful crisis were at hand. One of the consuls, who was staying in
the city, Opimius, ordered an armed guard to be placed at the Capitol
at daybreak and dispatched heralds to convene the senate. He sta-
tioned himself in a temple of Castor and Pollux in the middle of the city,
and awaited the outcome there.
When these preparations had been made, the senate called Grac-
chus and Flaccus from their homes to the senate-house to make their
defence, but with arms in their hands, they fled to the Aventine hill,
hoping that if they could get possession of it first the senate would
come to some understanding with them. They ran through the city
promising liberty to slaves, but none paid heed to them. Nevertheless,
with such troops as they had. they seized and barricaded the temple \>i
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Diana and dispatched Quintus, the son of Flaccus, to the senate, trying
to make terms and dwell in peace. The senate sent back word for
them to put down their arms, and to come to the senate-house and tell
what they desired, or else send no more emissaries. As they sent
Quintus a second time, the consul Opimius seized him, as no longer an
envoy after being thus warned, and sent a force in arms against the
followers of Gracchus. Gracchus fled to a grove across the river by
the wooden bridge, accompanied by one slave, to whom he bared his
throat when on the point of being taken. Flaccus sought shelter in
the shop of an acquaintance. As those pursuing him did not know
what shop he was in they threatened to set fire to the whole line. The
man that had given the suppliant refuge was loth to point out his
hiding place, but told some one else to do so. Flaccus was caught and
slain. The heads of Gracchus and Flaccus were brought to Opimius
and he gave an equal weight in gold to the ones presenting them. The
mob pillaged their homes. Opimius seized their confederates and
threw them into prison, ordering them to be strangled to death. After
this a lustration on account of the bloodshed was made by the city
and the senate ordered the erection of a temple to Harmony in the
forum. — Appian, Civil Wars, I. 1-3.
XX. MISMANAGEMENT OF THE PROVINCES
When C. Gracchus returned from Sardinia, he addressed the
assembly of the people in these words : ''I have managed the province
as I thought it would serve best your advantage, not my own ambition.
I had no tavern, nor did beautiful youths attend me. But your sons
were more modestly served at my table than in service with the
enemy." Afterwards he said: "I managed the province in such a
way that no one could say that I took a penny or anything more as a
present; or that by my means anyone had incurred expense. Two
years have I been in the province, and if any harlot has entered my
house or any slave been seduced for my purposes, you may consider
me the lowest and most abandoned of men. If I was thus continent
with their slaves, you may suppose what was my conduct with regard
to your sons." And a little further on he says: "And so, fellow-
citizens, though I went away from Rome with my bags full of money,
I brought them back from the province empty; the wine casks which
V 3-6
90 INSTITUTIONS
others took away full of wine, they have brought back home full
of silver."
.... I was reading lately a speech of C. Gracchus upon promul-
gated laws, in. which with all the indignation of which he is master, he
complains that M. Marius and certain other persons of distinction from
the municipal towns of Italy were injuriously beaten with rods by the
magistrates of the Roman people. This is what he says of the affair :
"The consul lately came to Theanum Sidicinum (Tiano) ; he said his
wife wished to bathe in the men's bath. M. Marius entrusted the
affair to the quaestor of Sidicinum to see to it that those who were
bathing should be sent away. The wife told her husband that the
baths had not been given up to her quickly enough and were not suffi-
ciently clean. Immediately a post was fixed in the forum, and M.
Marius, the most illustrious man of his city, was led to it. His clothes
were taken off; he was beaten with rods. When the inhabitants of
Cules heard of it they straightway passed a law that no one should
bathe in the public baths when the Roman magistrate was there. Our
praetor also ordered the quaestors of Ferentum to be seized ; one threw
himself from the wall, the other was taken and beaten. ... In
another place also Gracchus says : "I will give you one example of
the licentiousness and intemperance of our young men. A few years
ago a young man was sent from Asio as an ambassador, who had not
yet been in any magisterial office. He was being carried in a litter.
A herdsman from the peasantry of Venussium met him, and not know-
ing who was being carried, asked as a joke whether they were bearing
a dead body. When the youth heard this, he ordered the litter to be
set down and the man to be beaten with the straps by which the litter
was fastened, till he died." — Aulus Gellius, N. A., X. 1-3.
XXI. THE JULIAN LAW, GRANTING CITIZENSHIP TO
ROME'S ALLIES
9O B. C.
By the Julian law itself, by which the rights of citizenship were
given to the allies and to the Latins, it was decreed that those peoples
who did not ratify the law, should not have the freedom of the city,
which circumstance gave rise to a great contention among the people
of Heraclea and among the people of Neapolis, as a great part of the
population in those states preferred the liberty which they had enjoyed
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by treaty with us to the rights of citizenship. — Cicero, For Balbius,
VIII.
XXII. ETRUSCANS AND UMBRIANS ADMITTED TO RO-
MAN CITIZENSHIP
90 B. C.
While such matters were taking place on the coast of Italy border-
ing the Adriatic, the peoples of Etruria and Umbria and others near
them on the other side of Rome learned of them and were all roused
to rebellion. The senate, afraid of being hemned in by foes for lack
of guards, garrisoned the coast from Cumae to Rome with freed slaves,
then for the first time, because of a lack of soldiers, enrolled in the
army. The senate also decreed that the Italians that had remained
in alliance should be admitted to citizenship, which was the one thing
they desired most. They sent this decree amongst the Etruscans, who
with great joy accepted the citizenship. By this favor the senate made
the steadfast more steadfast, strengthened the hesitating, and mollified
their foes by the hope of a like treatment. — Appian, Civil Wars, I. 49.
XXIII. LEX PLAUTIA
89 B. C.
Then the consuls, Silanus and Carbo, passed a law that all mem-
bers of tribes federated with Rome might have Roman citizenship if
when the law was passed they held their domicile in Italy, and within
sixty days should claim it before the Praetor. — Scholias Babbienzis,
Orelli's Edition, p. 353.
XXIV. THE CORNELIAN JUDICIARY LAWS
About this same time, Cotta divided equally between the two
orders the privilege of being judges, which Caius Gracchus had taken
from the senate, and transferred to the knights and which Sulla had
again restored to the senators. — Velleius Paterculus II. 32.
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XXV. THE CHANGE IN GOVERNMENT FROM A REPUB-
LIC TO AN EMPIRE
Therefore, the senate decreed these honors to Augustus, that he
should be perpetual tribune of the plebs, that as often as the senate met,
even if he did not hold the consulship, he should have the right of
making one proposition to the senate ; that in the same way and at the
same time, he should have the authority of a proconsul, and that it
should not be necessary for him to lay it aside on entering the city's
limits, or even to renew it ; that in each of the provinces his authority
should be above that of the prefects of the provinces. Hence it has
come about that Augustus and the emperors who have followed him,
have used with a certain show of legality, both these other powers and
the power of the tribune. For neither Augustus nor any other em-
peror took the name itself of tribune of the plebs. — Dio Cassius (155-
235 A. D.), LIII. 32.
XXVI. ELECTIONS GIVEN TO THE SENATE
14 A. D.
The assemblies for electing magistrates were now first transferred
from the Campus Martius to the senate; for though the emperor had
conducted all affairs of moment at his pleasure ; yet, till that day, some
were still transacted according to the inclination of the tribes. Neither
did the regret of the people for the seizure of these ancient rights, rise
higher than some impotent grumbling: the senate, too, released from
the charge of buying votes, and from the shame of begging them, wil-
lingly acquiesced in the regulation, by which Tiberius contented him-
self with the recommendation of four candidates only, to be accepted
without opposition or canvassing. At the same time, the tribunes of
the people asked leave to celebrate, at their own expense, certain games
in honor of Augustus, which were called after his name, and which
were now inserted in the calendar. But it was decreed that the charge
should be defrayed out of the exchequer, and that the tribunes should
in the circus wear the triumphal robe ; but to be carried in chariots was
denied them. The annual celebration of these plays was, for the
future, transferred to the praetors, to whom should fall the jurisdiction
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of deciding suits between citizens and strangers. — Tacitus Annals,
I.I5-
XXVII. VESPASIAN'S LAW CONCERNING THE EMPIRE
69 A. D.
(IMPORTANT FOR THE GROWTH OF IMPERIAL POWER.)
1. It is hereby enacted that it shall be lawful for Emperor Caesar
Vespasian Augustus ******* to conclude treaties with
whomsoever he shall wish, as it was lawful for the deified Augustus,
for Tiberius Julius Caesar Augustus, and for Tiberius Claudius Caesar
Augustus Germanicus ;
2. And that it shall be lawful for him to convoke the senate, to
propose a matter for discussion, to transmit to it a question submitted
to him, and to procure a decree of the senate by the proposal of a bill
and a division of the house ;
3. And that, when a meeting of the senate shall be held in ac-
cordance with his pleasure or authority, by his order or injunction, or
in his presence, all proceedings at such a meeting shall be accounted
valid, and observance shall be due them, just as if the meetings of the
senate had been announced and held in accordance with ordinary pro-
cedure ;
4. And that whatsoever candidates for office, power, authority, or
charge of any matter he shall have recommended to the Roman Senate
and people, to whomsoever he shall have given or promised his sup-
port, account shall be taken extraordinarily of them at any comitia
whatsoever ;
5. And that it shall be lawful for him to advance and promote
the boundiaries of the pomperium whenever he shall think it advan-
tageous for the state, as it was lawful for Tiberius Claudius Caesar
Augustus Germanicus;
6. And that, whatsoever he shall think likely to promote the wel-
fare of the state, the dignity of sacred and profane, public and private
interests, he shall have full right and authority to do and execute; as
had the deified Augustus, Tiberius Julius Caesar Augustus, and Ti-
berius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus;
7. And that, whatsoever laws and plebiscites were declared not
to be binding on the deified Augustus, Tiberius Julius Caesar Augus-
tus, or Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus, from these
94 INSTITUTIONS
laws and plebiscites, Emperor Caesar Vespasian shall be exempt, and
that whatsoever things it was allowed the deified Augustus, or Tiberius
Julius Caesar Augustus, or Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Ger-
manicus to do by any law or bill, it shall be lawful for Emperor Ves-
pasion Caesar Augustus to do all those things.
8. And that whatsoever has been done, executed, or commanded
by Emperor Vespasian Caesar Augustus or by any person on his order
or injunction before the passage of this law, shall be legal and valid,
just as if it had been done by the people or plebs.
9. Degree of inviolability.
If any person has done or shall have done anything on account
of this law contrary to the provisions of any law, bill, plebiscite, or
decree of the senate, or if, on account of this law, he shall have left
undone what, in accordance wich any law, bill, plebiscite, or decree
of the senate, he should do, it shall not be a crime on his part, nor
shall he be liable to pay any penalty to the people on that account,
nor shall any person have the right of entering suit or proceeding
judicially on that ground, nor shall any person allow suit concerning
it to be carried on before him.
XXVIII. NERVA'S CARE OF INDIGENT CHILDREN
96-97 A. D.
"He (Nerva) ordered the girls who were born of indigent parents
to be brought up at public expense in the towns of Italy.'' — Aurelius
Victor, Epitome, 12
XXIX. "MUNICIPIA," AND "COLONIES"
The words municipes and mnnicipia are easy to say and obvious
in meaning, and you would never find a man who uses them, but sup-
poses that he clearly knows their meaning. But in fact, he says one
thing and means another, for who is there that, coming from a colony
of the Roman people, does not call himself municeps and his fellows
municipes, which is far from reason and truth. So we are also ignor-
ant as to what municipia are and by what law they exist, and how they
differ from a solonia; and we suppose that colonies are more privileged
than municipia.... Municipes are Roman citizens from Muni-
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cipia, having their own laws and their own rights; being only par-
takers of the honorary privileges of the Roman people, they seem to
have received their name from the fact of their receiving privileges
(a munerc suf>f>csscnda), not being bound by the other restrictions or
by any law of the Roman people. . . . But coloniac stand in
another relationship ; they do not come into the state from the outside,
nor are they grown from their own roots, but are, as it were, offshoots
of the state, and have all the laws and institutes of the Roman people,
and not those of their own making; this condition, though it seems
more oppressive and less free, yet is deemed more desirable and hon-
orable, because of the greatness and majesty of the Roman people, of
which these colonies seem to be little images and copies; and likewise
because the rights of the mnnicipia become obscure and forgotten, be-
cause from their ignorance of their proper claims. — Aulus Gellius, N.
A. XVI. 13.
XXX. CARACALLA EXTENDS ROMAN CITIZENSHIP TO
ALL THE FREE INHABITANTS OF THE EMPIRE
212 A. D.
He (Antoninus Caracalla) gave citizenship to all who were in the
Roman world, giving it to them as an honor in appearance, but in fact
that he might increase his revenue; since indeed all those in the
Empire who had not citizenship escaped most of these taxes. — Dio
Cassius, LXXVI. 9.
XXXI. DIOCLETIAN'S CHANGES AND REFORMS
284 A. D.
The victorious army, on returning from Persia, as they had lost
their emperor, Carus, by lightning, and the Caesar Numerianus by a
plot, conferred the imperial dignity on Diocletian, a native of Dalmatio,
of such extremely obscure birth, that he is said by most writers to have
been the son of a clerk, but by some to have been a freedman of a
senator named Tulinus.
XX. Diocletian, in the first assembly of the army that was held,
took an oath that Numerian was not killed by any treachery on his part ;
and while Aper, who laid the plot for Numerian's life, was standing by,
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he was killed, iR the sight of the army, with a sword in the hand of
Diocletian. He soon after overthrew Carinus, who was living under
the utmost hatred and detestation, in a great battle at Margum, Carinus
being betrayed by his own troops, for he had a greater number
of men than the enemy, he was altogether abandoned by them between
Viminacium and Mount Aureus. He thus became master of the
Roman empire; and when the peasants in Gaul made an insurrection,
giving their faction the name of Bagaudae and having for leaders
Amandus and ^Elianus, he despatched Maximian Herculius, with the
authority of Caesar, to suppress them. Maximian, in a few battles of
little importance, subdued the rustic multitude, and restored peace to
Gaul.
During this period, Carausius, who, through of very mean birth,
had gained extraordinary reputation by a course of active service in
war, having received a commission in his post at Bononia, to clear the
sea, which the Franks and Saxons infested, along the coast of Belgica
and Armorica, and having captured numbers of the barbarians on
several occasions, but having never given back the entire booty to the
people of the province or sent it to the emperors, and there being a
suspicion, in consequence, that the barbarians were intentionally allowed
by him to congregate there, that he might seize them and their "booty as
they passed, and by that means enrich himself, assumed, on being sen-
tenced by Maximian to be put to death, assumed the imperial purple,
and took on him the government of Britain.
While disorder thus prevailed throughout the world, while Car-
ausius was taking arms in Britain and Achilleus in Egypt, while Quin-
quegentiani were harassing Africa, and Nauseus was making war
being betrayed by his own troops, for though he had a greater number
upon the east, Diocletian promoted Maximian Herculius from the dig-
nity of Caesar to that of emperor, and created Constantius and Maxi-
mian Galerius Caesars, of whom Constantius is said to have been the
grand-nephew of Claudius, by a daughter, and Maximian Galerius to
have been born in Dacia not far from Sardica. That fie might also
unite them by affinity, Constantius married Theodora, the step-daughter
of Herculius, by whom he had afterwards six children, brothers to
Constantine ; who Galerius married Valeria, the daughter of Diocletian ;
both being obliged to divorce the wives they had before. With Carau-
sius, however, as hostilities were found vain against a man eminently
skilled in war, a peace was at last arranged. At the end of seven years,
Allectus, one of his supporters, put him to death, and held Britain
himself for three years subsequently, but was cut off by the efforts
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of Asclepidotus, praefect of the praetorian guard.
At the same period a battle was fought by Constantius Caesar in
Gaul, at Lingonae, where he experienced both good and bad fortune in
one day; for though he was driven into the city by a sudden onset of
the barbarians, with such haste and precipitation that after the gates
were shut he was drawn up the wall by ropes, yet, when his army
came up, after the lapse of six hours, he cut to pieces about sixty
thousand of the Alemanni. Maximian, the emperor, too brought the
war to an end in Africa, by subduing the Quinquegentiani, and com-
pelling them to make peace. Diocletian, meanwhile, besieging Ach-
illeus in Alexandria, obliged him to surrender about eight months
after, and put him to death. He used his victory, indeed, cruelly, and
distressed all Egypt with severe proscription and massacres. Yet at the
same time he made many judicious arrangements and regulations, which
continue to our own days.
Galerius Maximian, in acting again Narseus, fought, on the first
occasion, a battle far from successful, meeting him between Callinicus
and Carrae, and engaging in the combat rather with rashness than want
of courage ; for he contended with a small army against a very numer-
ous enemy ; Being, in consequence, defeated, and going to join Dio-
cletian, he was received by him, when he met him on the road, with
such extreme haughtiness, that he is said to have run by his chariot
for several miles in his scarlet robes.
But having soon after collected forces in Illyricum and Mcesia,
he fought a second time with Narseus (the grand- father of Hormisdas
and Sapor) in Greater Armenia, with extraordinary success, and with
no less caution and spirit, for he undertook, with one or two of the
cavalry, the office of a speculator. After putting Narseus to flight, he
captured his wives, sisters, and children, with a vast number of the
Persian nobility besides, and a great quantity of treasure; the king
himself he forced to take refuge in the remotest deserts in his dominions.
Returning, therefore, in triumph to Diocletian, who was then encamped
with some troops in Mesopotamia, he was welcomed by him with great
honor. Subsequently, they conducted several wars both in conjunction
and separately, subduing Carpi and Bastarnae, and defeating Sarma-
tions, from which nations he settled a great number of captives in the
Roman territories.
Diocletian was of a crafty disposition, with much sagacity, and
keep penetration. He was willing to gratify his own disposition to
cruelty in such a way as to throw the odium upon others ; he was, how-
98 INSTITUTIONS
ever, a very active and able prince. He was the first that introduced
into the Roman empire a ceremony suited rather to royal usages than to
Roman liberty, giving orders that he should be adored, whereas all
emperors before him were only saluted. He put ornaments of precious
stones on his dress and shoes, when the imperial distinction had prev-
iously been only in the purple robe, the rest of the habit being the same
as that of other men.
But Herculius was undisguisedly cruel, and of a violent temper,
and showed his severity of disposition in the sternness of his looks.
Gratifying his own inclination, he joined with Diocletian in even the
most cruel of his proceedings. But when Docletian, as age bore
heavily upon him, felt himself unable to sustain the government of the
empire, he suggested to Herculius that they should both retire into
private life, and commit the duty of upholding the state to more
vigorous and youthful hands. With this suggestion his colleague
reluctantly complied. Both of them, in the same day, exchanged the
robe of purple for an ordinary dress, Diocletian at Nicomedia, Her-
culius at Milan, soon after a magnificent triumph which they celebrated
at Rome, over several nations, with a noble succession of pictures, and
in which the wives, sisters and children of Narseus were led before
their chariots. The one then retired to Salonae, and the other into
Lucania.
Diocletian lived to an old age in a private station, at a villa which
is not far from Salonae, in honorable retirement, exercising extraordi-
nary philosophy, inasmuch as he alone of all men, since the foundation
of the Roman empire, voluntarily returned from so high a dignity to the
condition of private life, and to an equality with the other citizens.
That happened to him, therefore, which had happened to no one since
men were created, that, though he died in a private condition, he was
enrolled among the gods. — Eutropius, IX. 19-28.
TRANSLATION OF JOHN S. WATSON.
While Diocletian, the author of ill, and deviser of misery, was
ruining all things, he could not withhold his insults, not even against
God. This man, by avarice partly, and partly by timid counsels, over-
turned the Roman empire. For he made choice of three persons to
share the government with him; and thus, the empire having been
quartered, armies were multiplied, and each of the four princes strove
to maintain a much more considerable military force than any sole
emperor had done in times past. There began to be fewer men who
INSTITUTIONS H
paid taxes tlian there were who received wages ; so that the means of
the husbandman being exhausted, by enormous impositions, the farms
were abandoned, cultivated grounds became woodland, and universal
dismay prevailed. Besides, the provinces were divided into minute
portions, and many presidents and a multitude of inferior officers lay
heavy on each territory, and almost on each city. There were also
many stewards of different degrees, and deputies of presidents. Very
few civil causes came before them; but there were condemnations
daily, and forfeitures frequently inflicted; taxes on numberless com-
modities, and those not only often repeated, but perpetual, and, in
exacting them, intolerable wrongs.
Whatever was laid on for the maintenance of the soldiery might
have been endured ; but Diocletian, through his insatiable avarice,
would never allow the sums of money in his treasury to be diminished :
he was constantly heaping together extraordinary aids and free gifts,
and his original hoards might remain untouched and inviolable. He
also, when by various extortions he had made all things exceedingly
dear, attempted by an ordinance to limit their prices. Then much
blood was shed for the veriest trifles ; men were afraid to expose aught
to sale, and the scarcity became more excessive and grievous than ever,
until, in the end, the ordinance, after having proved destructive to
multitudes, was from mere necessity abrogated. To this there were
added a certain endless passion of building, and on that account,
endless exactions from the provinces for furnishing wages to laborers
and artificers, and supplying carriages and whatever else was requisite
to the works which he projected. Here public halls, there a circus,
here a mint, and there a workhouse for making implements of war;
in one place a habitation for his empress, and in another for his daugh-
ter. Presently a great part of the city was quitted, and all men removed
with their wives and children, as from a town taken by enemies ; and
when those buildings were completed, to the destruction of whole
provinces, he said, "They are not right, let them be done on another
plan." Then they were to be pulled down, or altered, to undergo
perhaps a future demolition. By such folly was he continually en-
deavoring to equal Nicomedia with the city Rome in magnificence. —
Lactantius, On the Death of the Persecutors, 7.
100
THE INSTITUTES OF JUSTINIAN
527-565 A. D.
BOOK I. OF PERSONS
I. JUSTICE AND LAW
JUSTICE is the constant and perpetual wish to render every one
his due.
1. Jurisprudence is the knowledge of things divine and human;
the science of the just and the unjust.
2. Having explained these general terms, we think we shall
commence our exposition of the law of the Roman people most advan-
tageously, if we pursue at first a plain and easy path, and then pro-
ceed to explain particular details with the utmost care and exactness.
For, if at the outset we overload the mind of the student, while yet
new to the subject and unable to bear much, with a multitude and
variety of topics, one of two things will happen — we shall either cause
him wholly to abandon his studies, or, after great toil, and often after
great distrust to himself (the most frequent stumbling block in the
way of youth), we shall at last conduct him to the point, to which, if
he had been led by an easier road, he might, without great labor, and
without any distrust of his own powers, have been sooner conducted.
3. The maxims of law are these : to live honesty, to hurt no one,
to give every one his due.
4. The study of law is divided into two branches ; that of public
and that of private law. Public law regards the government of the
Roman empire; private law, the interest of the individuals. We are
now to treat of the latter, which is composed of three elements, and
consists of precepts belonging to the natural law, to the law of nations,
and to the civil law.
II. NATURAL, COMMON AND CIVIL LAW
The law of nature is that law which nature teaches to all animals.
For this law does not belong exclusively to the human race, but be-
longs to all animals, whether-of the earth, the air, or the water. Henct
INSTITUTIONS 101
comes the union of the male and female, which we term matrimony ;
hence the procreation and bringing up of children. We see, indeed,
that all the other animals besides men are considered as having knowl-
edge of this law.
1. Civil law is thus distinguished from the law of nations.
Ever}' community governed by laws and customs, uses partly its own
law, partly laws common to all mankind. The law which a people
makes for its own government belongs exclusively to that state and
is called the civil law, as being the law of the particular state. But the
law which natural reason appoints for all mankind obtains equally
among all nations, because all nations make use of it. The people of
Rome, then, are governed partly by their own laws, and partly by the
laws which are common to all mankind. We will take notice of this
distinction as occasion may arise.
2. Civil law takes its name from the state which it governs, as,
for instance, from Athens ; for it would be very proper to speak of the
laws of Solon or Draco as the civil law of Athens. And thus the law
which the Roman people make use of is called the civil law of the
Romans, or that of the Quirites ; for the Romans are called Quirites
from Quirinum. But whenever we speak of civil law, without adding
the name of any state, we mean our own law ; just as the Greeks,
when 'the poet' is spoken of without any name being expressed, mean
the great Homer, and we Romans mean Virgil. The law of the
nations is common to all mankind, for nations have established certain
laws, as occasion and the necessities of human life required. Wars
arose, and in their train followed captivity and then slavery, which is
contrary to the law of nature; for by that law all men are originally
born free. Further, by the law of nations almost all contracts were at
first introduced, as, for instance, buying and selling, letting and hiring,
partnership, deposits, loans returnable in kind, and very many others.
3. Our law is written and unwritten, just as among the Greeks
some of their laws were written and others were not written. The
written part consists of laws, plebiscita, senatus-consnlta, enactments of
emperors, edicts of magistrates, and answers of jurisprudents.
4. A law is that which was enacted by the Roman people on its
being proposed by a senatorian magistrate, as a consul. A plebiscitum
is that which was enacted by the plebs on its being proposed by a
plebeian magistrate, as a tribune. The plebs differ from the people
as a species from its penus; for all the citizens, including patricians
and senators, are comprehended in the people; but the plebs only
102 INSTITUTIONS
included citizens, not being patricians or senators. Plebiscite, after
the Hortensian law had been passed, began to have the same force as
laws.
5. A senatns-consultum is that which the senate commands or
appoints: for, when the Roman people was so increased that it was
difficult to assemble it together to pass laws, it seemed right that the
senate should be consulted in place of the people.
6. That which seems good to the emperor has also the force of
law ; for the people, by the lex regia, which is passed to confer on him
his power, make over to him their whole power and authority. There-
fore whatever the emperor ordains by rescript, or decides in adjudging
a cause, or lays down by edict, is unquestionably law ; and it is these
enactments of the emperor that are called constitutions. Of these,
some are personal, and are not to be drawji into precedent, such not
being the intention of the emperor. Supposing the emperor has
granted a favor to any man on account of his merit, or inflicted some
punishment, or granted some extraordinary relief, the application of
these acts does not extend beyond the particular individual. But the
other constitutions, being general, are undoubtedly binding on all.
/. The edicts of the praetors are also of great authority. These
edicts are called the honorary law, because those who bear honors in
the stare, that is, the magistrates, have given them their sanction.
The curule aediles also used to publish an edict relative to certain sub-
jects, which edict also became a part of the jus honorarium.
8. The answers of the jurisprudents are the decisions and opin-
ions of persons who were authorized to determine the law. For an-
ciently it was provided that there should be persons to interpret pub-
licly the law, who were permitted by the emperor to give answers on
questions of law. They were called jurisconsulti ; and the authority
of their decision and opinions, when they were all unanimous, was
such, that the judge could not, according to the constitutions, refuse
to be guided by their answers.
9. The unwritten law is that which usage has established; for
ancient customs, being sanctioned by the consent of those who adopt
them, are like laws.
10. The civil law is not improperly divided into two kinds, for
the division seems to have had its origin in the customs of the two
states Athens and Lacedaemon. For in these states it used to be the
case, that the Lacedaemonians rather committed to memory what they
observed as law, while the Athenians rather observed as law what they
INSTITUTIONS 103
had consigned to writing, and included in the body of their laws.
II. The laws of nature, which all nations observe alike, being
established by a divine providence, remain ever fixed and immutable.
But the laws which every state has enacted, undergo frequent changes,
either by the tacit consent of the people, or by a new law being subse-
quently passed.
III. THE LAW OF PERSONS
All our law relates either to persons, or to things, or to actions.
Let us first speak of persons ; as it is of little purpose to know the law,
if we do not know the persons for whose sake the law was made.
The chief division in the rights of persons is this: men are all either
free or slaves.
1. Freedom, from which men are said to be free, is the natural
power of doing what we each please, unless prevented by force or by
law.
2. Slavery is an institution of the law of nations, by which one
man is made the property of another, contrary to natural right.
3. Slaves are denominated servi, because generals order their
captives to be sold, and thus preserve them, and do not put them to
death. Slaves are also called ntancipia, because they are taken from
the enemy by the strong hand.
4. Slaves either are born or become so. They are born so when
their mother is a slave; they become so either by the law of nations,
that is, by captivity, or by the civil law, as when a free person, above
the age of twenty, suffers himself to be sold, that he may share the
price given for him.
5. In the condition of slaves there is no distinction ; but there
are many distinctions among free persons; for they are either born
free, or have been set free.
IV. DE INGENUIS
A person is ingenuus who is free from the moment of his birth,
by being born in matrimony, of parents who have been either both born
free, or both made free, or one of whom has been born and the other
made free; and when the mother is free, and the father a slave, the
child nevertheless is born free; just as he is if his mother is free, and
it is uncertain who is his father ; for he had then no legal father. And
it is sufficient if the mother is free at the time of the birth, although a
slave when she conceived ; and on the other hand, if she be free when
104 INSTITUTIONS
she conceives, and is a slave when she gives birth to her child, yet the
child is held to be born free ; for the misfortune of the mother ought
not to prejudice her unborn infant. The question hence arose, if a
female slave with child is made free, but again becomes a slave before
the child is born, whether the child is born free or a slave ? Marcellus
thinks it is born free, for it is sufficient for the unborn child, if the
mother has been free, although only in the intermediate time; and
this is true.
i. When a man has been born free he does not cease to be
ingenuus, because he has been in the position of a slave, and has sub-
sequently been enfranchised ; for it has been often settled that enfran-
chisement does not prejudice the rights of birth.
V. FREEDMEN
Freedmen are those who have been manumitted from just servi-
tude. Manumission is the process of freeing from 'the hand.' For
while any one is in slavery, he is under 'the hand' and power of another,
but by manumission he is freed from this power. This institution took
its rise from the law of nations ; for by the law of nature all men were
born free ; and manumission was not heard of, as slavery was unknown.
But when slavery came in by the law of nations, the boon of manu-
mission followed. And whereas all were denominated by the one
natural name of 'men/ the law of nations introduced a division into
three kinds of men, namely, freemen, and in opposition to them, slaves ;
and thirdly, freedmen who had ceased to be slaves.
1. Manumission is effected in various ways; either in the face of
the Church, according to the imperial constitutions, or by vindicta, or
in the presence of friends, or by letter, or by testament, or by any other
expression of a man's last will. And a slave may also gain his freedom
in many other ways, introduced by the constitutions of former empe-
rors, and by our own.
2. Slaves may be manumitted by their masters at any time ; even
when the magistrate is only passing along, as when a praetor, or praeses,
or proconsul is going to the baths, or the theater.
3. Freedmen were formerly divided into three classes. For those
who were manumitted sometimes obtained a complete liberty, and be-
came Roman citizens; sometimes a less complete, and became Latins
under the lex Junia Norbana; and sometimes a liberty still inferior, and
became dedititii, by the lex JElia Sentia. But this lowest class, that of
the dedititii, has long disappeared, and the title of Latins become raje ;
INSTITUTIONS 106
and so in our benevolence, which leads us to complete and improve
everything, we have introduced a great reform by two constitutions,
which re-established the ancient usage ; for in the infancy of the state
there was but one liberty, the same for the enfranchised slave as for the
person who manumitted him ; excepting, indeed, that the person manu-
mitted was fret-burn. We have abolished the class of dcdititii by a con-
stitution published among our decisions, by which, at the suggestion of
the eminent Tribonian, quaestor, we have put an end to difficulties
arising from the ancient law. We have also, at his suggestion, done
away with the Latini Junuini, and everything relating to them, by an-
other constitution, one of the most remarkable of our imperial ordi-
nances. We have made all freedmen whatsoever Roman citizens, with-
out any distinction as to the age of the slave, or the interest of the
manumittor, or the mode of manumission. We have also introduced
many new methods by which slaves may become Roman citizens, the
only kind of liberty that now exists.
VIII. THOSE NOT INDEPENDENT
We now come to another division relative to the rights of persons ;
for some persons are independent, some are subject to the power of
others. Of those, again, who are subject to others, some are in the
power of parents, others in that of masters. Let us first treat of those
who are subject to others; for, when we have ascertained who these
are, we shall at the same time discover who are independent. And
first let us consider those who are in the power of masters.
1. Slaves are in the power of masters, a power derived from the
law of nations : for among all nations it may be remarked that masters
have the power of life and death over their slaves, and that everything
acquired by the slave is acquired for the master.
2. But at the present day none of our subjects may use unre-
strained violence towards their slaves, except for a reason recognized
by law. For, by a constitution of the Emperor Antonius Pius, he who
without any reason kills his own slave, is to be punished equally with
one who has killed the slave of another. The excessive severity of mas-
ters is also restrained by another constitution of the same emperor.
For, when consulted by certain governors of provinces on the subject
of slaves, who fly for refuge either to temples, or the statues of the em-
perors, he decided that if the severity of masters should appear exces-
sive, they might be compelled to make sale of their slaves upon equit-
able terms, so that the masters might receive the value ; and this was a
V 3-7
106 INSTITUTIONS
very wise decision, as it concerns the public good, that no one should
misuse his own property. The following are the terms of this rescript
of Antonius, which was sent to ^Elius Marcianus. 'The power of mas-
ters over their slaves ought to be preserved unimpaired, nor ought any
man to be deprived of his just right. But it is for the interest of all
masters themselves, that relief prayed on good grounds against cruelty,
the denial of sustenance, or any other intolerable injury, should not be
refused. Examine, therefore, into the complaints of the slaves who
have fled from the house of Julius Sabinus, and taken refuge at the
statue of the emperor ; and, if you find that they have been too harshly
treated, or wantonly disgraced, order them to be sold, so that they may
not fall again under the power of their master ; and, if Sabinus attempt
to evade my constitution, I would have him know, that I shall severely
punish his disobedience.'
IX. THE POWER OF PARENTS
Our children, begotten in lawful marriage, are in our power.
1. Marriage, or matrimony, is a binding together of a man and
woman to live in an indivisible union.
2. The power which we have over our children is peculiar to the
citizens of Rome ; for no other people have a power over their children,
such as we have over ours.
3. The child born to you and your wife is in your power. And
so is the child born to your son of his wife, that is, your grandson or
granddaughter; so are your great grandchildren, and all your other
descendants. But a child born of your daughter is not in your power,
but in the power of its own father.
X. MARRIAGE
Roman citizens are bound together in lawful matrimony, when
they are united according to law, the males having attained the age of
puberty, and the females a marriageable age, whether they are fathers
or sons of a family ; but, of the latter, they must first obtain the consent
of their parents, in whose power they are. For both natural reason
and the law require this consent ; so much so, indeed, that it ought to
precede the marriage. Hence the question has arisen, whether the
daughter of a madman could be married, or his son marry? And as opin-
ions were divided as to the son, we decided that as the daughter of a
madman might, so may the son of a madman marry without the inter-
INSTITUTIONS 107
vention of the father, according to the mode established by our consti-
tution.
1. We may not marry every woman without distinction ; for with
some, marriage is forbidden. Marriage cannot be contracted between
persons standing to each other in the relation of ascendant and descend-
ant, as between a father and daughter, a grandfather and his grand-
daughter, a mother and her son, a grandmother and her grandson ; and
so on, ad infinitum. And, if such persons unite together, they only con-
tract a criminal and incestuous marriage ; so much so, that ascendants
and descendants, who are only so by adoption, cannot intermarry ; and
even after the adoption is dissolved, the prohibition remains. You can-
not, therefore, marry a woman who has been either your daughter or
granddaughter by adoption, although you may have emancipated her.
2. There are also restrictions, though not so extensive, on mar-
riage between collateral relations. A brother and sister are forbidden
to marry, whether they are the children of the same father and mother,
or of one of the two only. And, if a woman becomes your sister by
adoption, you certainly cannot marry ; but, if the adoption is destroyed
by emancipation, you may marry her ; as you may also, if you yourself
are emancipated. Hence it follows, that if a man would adopt his son-
in-law, he ought first to emancipate his daughter; and if he would
adopt his daughter-in-law, he ought previously to emancipate his son.
3. A man may not marry the daughter of a brother, or a sister,
nor the granddaughter, although she is in the fourth degree. For
when we may not marry the daughter of any person, neither may we
marry the granddaughter. But there does not appear to be any impedi-
ment to marrying the daughter of a woman whom your father has
adopted ; for she is no relation to you, either by natural or civil law.
4. The children of two brothers or two sisters, or of a brother and
sister, may marry together.
5. So, too, a man may not marry his paternal aunt, even though
she be so only by adoption ; nor his maternal aunt ; because they are re-
garded in the light of ascendants. For the same reason, no person may
marry his great aunt, either paternal or. maternal.
6. There are, too, other marriages from which we must abstain,
from regard to the ties created by marriage ; for example, a man may
not marry his wife's daughter, or his son's wife, for they are both in the
place of daughters to him ; and this must be understood to mean those
who have been our stepdaughters or daughters-in-law: for if a woman
is still your daughter-in-law, that is, if she is still married to your son,
108 INSTITUTIONS
you cannot marry her for another reason, as she cannot be the wife of
two persons at once. And if your step-daughter, that is, if her mother
is still married to you, you cannot marry her, because a person cannot
have two wives at the same time.
7. Again, a man is forbidden to marry his wife's mother, and his
father's wife, because they hold the place of .mothers to him; a pro-
hibition which can only operate when the affinity is dissolved; for if
your step-mother is still your step-mother, that is, if she is still married
to your father, she would be prohibited from marrying you by the com-
mon rule of law, which forbids a woman to have two husbands at the
same time. So if your wife's mother is still your wife's mother, that is,
if her daughter is still married to you, you cannot marry her, because
you cannot have two wives at the same time.
8. The son of a husband by a former wife, and the daughter of a
wife by a former husband, or the daughter of a husband by a former
wife, and the son of a wife by a former husband, may lawfully contract
marriage, even though they have a brother or sister born of the second
marriage.
9. The daughter of a divorced wife by a second husband is not
your step-daughter ; and yet Julian says we ought to abstain from such
a marriage. For the betrothed wife of a son is not your daughter-in-
law ; nor your betrothed wife your son's step-mother ; and yet it is more
decent and more in accordance with law to abstain from such marriage.
10. It is certain that the relationship of slaves is an impediment to
marriage, even if the father and daughter or brother and sister, as the
-case may be, have been enfranchised.
11. There are other persons also, between whom marriage is pro-
'hibited for different reasons, which we have permitted to be enumer-
ated in the books of the Digests or Pandects, collected from the old law.
12. If persons unite themselves in contravention of the rules thus
laid down, there is no husband or wife, no nuptials, no marriage, nor
marriage portion, and the children born in such a connection are not
in the power of the father. For, with regard to the power of a father,
they are in the position of children conceived in prostitution, who are
looked upon as having no father, because it is uncertain who he is ; and
are therefore called spnrii, either from a Greek word sporadan, mean-
ing 'at hazard,' or as being sine patre, without a father. On the disso-
lution of such a connection there can be no claim made for the demand
of a marriage portion. Persons who contract prohibited marriages are
liable also to further penalties set forth in our imperial constitutions.
INSTITUTIONS 109
13. It sometimes happens, that children who at their birth were
not in the power of their father, are brought under it afterwards. Such
is the case of a natural son, who is given to the curia, and then becomes
subject to his father's power. Again, a child born of a free woman,
with whom marriage was not prohibited by any law, but with whom the
father only cohabited, will likewise become subject to the power of his
father if at any time afterwards instruments of dowry are drawn up
according to the provisions of our constitution. And this constitution
confers the same benefits on any children who may be subsequently
born of the same marriage.
XI. ADOPTION
Not only are our natural children, as we have said, in our power,
but those also whom we adopt.
1. Adoption takes place in two ways, either by imperial rescript,
or by the authority of the magistrate. The imperial rescript gives
power to adopt persons of either sex who are stti juris; and this species
of adoption is called arrogation. By the authority of the magistrate we
adopt persons in the power of an ascendant, whether in the first degree,
as sons and daughters, or in an inferior degree, as grandchildren or
great grandchildren.
2. But now, by our constitution, when a filhisfamilias is given
in adoption by his natural father to a stranger, the power of the natural
father is not dissolved ; no right passes to the adoptive father, nor is
the adopted son in his power, although we allow such son the right of
succession to his adoptive father dying intestate. But if a natural father
should give his son in adoption, not to a stranger, but to the son's
maternal grandfather ; or, supposing the natural father has been eman-
cipated, if he gives the son in adoption to the son's paternal grandfather,
or to the son's maternal great-grandfather, in this case, as the rights of
nature and adoption concur in the same person, the power of the
adoptive father, knit by natural ties and strengthened by the legal bond
of adoption, is preserved undiminished, so that the adopted son is not
only in the family, but in the power of his adoptive father.
3. When any one, under the age of puberty, is arrogated by the
imperial rescript, the arrogation is only allowed when inquiry has been
made into the circumstances of the case. It is asked, what is the motive
leading to the arrogation, and whether the arrogation is honorable and
expendient for the pupil. And the arrogation is always made under
certain conditions: the arrogator is obliged to give security before 41
110 INSTITUTIONS
public person, that is, before a notary, that if the pupil should die within
the age of puberty, he will restore all the property to those who would
have succeeded him if no adoption had been made. Nor, again, can
the arrogator emancipate the person arrogated, unless, on examination
into the case, it appears that the latter is worthy of emancipation ; and,
even then, the arrogator must restore the property belonging to the
person he emancipates. Also, even if the arrogator, on his death-bed,
has disinherited his arrogated son, or, during his life, has emancipated
him without just cause, he is obliged to leave him the fourth part of
all his goods, besides what the son brought to him at the time of arro-
gation, or acquired for him afterwards.
4. A younger person cannot adopt an older ; for adoption imitates
nature; and it seems unnatural that a son should be older than his
father. Any one, therefore, who wishes either to adopt or arrogate
a son should be the elder by the term of complete puberty, that is, by
eighteen years.
5. A person may adopt another as grandson or granddaughter,
great-grandson or great-granddaughter, or any other descendant, al-
though he has no son.
6. A man may adopt the son of another as his grandson, and the
grandson of another as his son.
7. If a man adopts a grandson to be the son of a man already
adopted, or of a natural son in his power, the consent of this son ought
first to be obtained, that he may not have a suus heres given him against
his will. But, on the contrary, if a grandfather gives his grandson by
a son in adoption, the consent of the son is not necessary.
8. He who is either adopted or arrogated is assimilated, in many
points, to a son born in lawful matrimony ; and therefore, if any one
adopts a person who is not a stranger by imperial rescript, or before the
praeter, or the prceses of a province, he can afterwards give in adoption
to another the person whom he has adopted.
9. It is a rule common to both kinds of adoption, that persons,
although incapable of procreating, as, for instance, impotent persons,
may, but those who are castrated cannot adopt.
10. Women, also, cannot adopt; for they have not even their
own children in' their power; but, by the indulgence of the emperor, as
a comfort for the loss of their own children, they are allowed to adopt.
11. Adoption by the rescript of the emperor has this peculiarity.
If a person, having children under his power, should give himself in
arrogation, not only does he submit himself to the power of the arro-
INSTITUTIONS 111
gator, but his children are also in the arrogator's power, being con-
sidered his grandchildren. It was for this reason that Augustus did
not adopt Tiberius until Tiberius had adopted Germanicus; so that
directly the adoption was made, Gerraanicus became the grandson of
Augustus.
12. Cato, as we learn from the ancients, has with good reason
written that slaves, when adopted by their masters, are thereby made
free. In accordance with which opinion, we have decided by one of our
constitutions that a slave to whom his master by a solemn deed gives
the title of son is thereby made free, although he does not require
thereby the rights of a son.
XII. FREEING FROM POWER
Let us now inquire into the different ways in which persons in
the power of others are freed from it. How slaves are freed from the
power of their masters may be learnt from what we have already said
with regard to manumision. Those who are in the power of a parent
became independent at his death ; a rule, however, which admits of a
distinction. For when a father dies, his sons and daughters become
undoubtedly independent; but when a grandfather dies, his grand-
children do not necessarly become independent, but only if on the
grandfather's death they do not fall under the power of their father.
Therefore, if their father is alive at the death of their grandfather, and
was in his power, then, on the grandfather's death, they become subject
to the power of their father. But, if at the time of the grand father's
death their father is either dead, or has already passed out of the grand-
father's power by emancipation, as they do not fall under the power
of their father, they become independent.
1. If a man, convicted of some crime, is deported to an island,
he loses the rights of a Roman citizen; whence it follows, that the
children of a person thus banished cease to be under his power, exactly
as if he were dead. Equally, if a son is deported, does he cease to be
under the power of his father. But, if by favor of the emperor any one
is restored, he regains his former position in every respect.
2. A father who is merely banished by relegation, still retains his
children in his power ; and a child who is relegated still remains in the
power of his father.
3. When a man becomes a 'slave of punishment' he ceases to have
his sons in his power. Person become 'slaves of punishment' who
are condemned to the mines, or exposed to wild beasts.
112 INSTITUTIONS
4. A son, though he becomes a soldier, a senator, or a consul, still
remains in the power of his father, from which neither military service
nor consular dignity can free him. But by our constitution the supreme
dignity of the patriciate frees the son from the power of his father im-
mediately on the grant of the imperial patent. It is obviously absurd
that a parent could emancipate his son from the tie of his power, and
that the majesty of the emperor should not be able to release from the
power of another, one whom he had chosen to be a father of the state.
5. If a parent is taken prisoner, although he become the slave of
the enemy, yet his paternal power is only suspended, owing to the jus
postliminii; for captives, when they return, are restored to all their
former rights. Thus, on his return, the father will have his children
in his power; for the postliminium supposes that the captive has never
been absent. If, however, a prisoner dies in captivity, the son is con-
sidered to have been independent from the time when his father was
taken a prisoner. So, too, if a son, on grandson, is taken prisoner, the
power of the parent, by means of the jus postliminii, is only in suspense.
The term postliminium is derived from post and limen. We therefore
say of a person taken by the enemy, and then returning into our terri-
tory, that he is come back by postliminium. For, just as the threshold
forms the boundary of a house, so the ancients have termed the
boundary of the empire a threshold. Whence limes, also is derived,
and is used to signify a boundary and limit. Thence comes the word
postliminium, because the prisoner returned to the same limits whence
he had been lost. The prisoner, also, who is retaken on the defeat of
the enemy, is considered to have come back by postliminium.
6. Children, also, cease to be under the power of their parents by
emancipation. Formerly emancipation was effected, either adopting
the process of the ancient law, consisting of imaginary sales, each fol-
lowed by a manumission, or by imperial rescript ; but we, in our wisdom,
have introduced a reform on this point by one of our constitutions. The
old fictitious process is now done away with, and parents may now
appear directly before a proper judge or magistrate, and free from
their power their children, or grandchildren, or other descendants. And
then, according to the praetorian edict, the parent has the same rights
over the goods of those whom he emancipates, as the patron has over
the goods of his freedman. And, further, if the child or children eman-
cipated are within the age of puberty, the parent, by the emancipation,
becomes their tutor.
|
7. It is also to be observed that a parent having in his power a
INSTITUTIONS 113
son, and by that son a grandson or granddaughter, may emancipate his
son, and retain in his power his grandson or granddaughter ; or, con-
versely, he may emancipate his grandson or granddaughter, and retain
his son in his power ; or, he may make them all independent. And it is
the same in the case of a great-grandson, or a great-granddaughter.
8. If a father has a son in his power, and gives him in adoption
to the son's natural grandfather or great-grandfather, in conformity
with our constitutions enacted on this subject, that is, if he declares his
intention in a formal act before a competent judge, in the present and
without the dissent of the person adopted, and also in the presence
of the person who adopts, then the right of paternal power is ex-
tinguished as to the natural father, and passes from him to the adoptive
father; with regard to whom, as we have before observed, adoption
preserves all its effects.
9. It must be observed, that if your daughter-in-law becomes
pregnant, and if during her pregnancy you emancipate your son, or
give him in adoption, the child will be born in your power; but if the
child is conceived subsequently to the emancipation or adoption, he is
born in the power of his emancipated father, or his adoptive grand-
father. Children, natural or adoptive, have almost no means of com-
pelling their parents to free them from their power.
XIII. GUARDIANSHIP
Let us now proceed to another division of persons. Of those who
are not in the power of a parent, some are under a tutor, some under a
curator, some under neither. Let us treat, then, of the class of those
persons who are under a tutor or curator : for we shall thus ascertain
who are they who are not subject to either. And first of persons
under a tutor.
1. Tutleage, as Servius has defined it, is an authority and power
over a free person, given and permitted by the civil law, in order to
protect one whose tender years prevent him defending himself.
2. Tutors are those who have this authority and power, and they
take their name from the nature of their office; for they are called
tutors, as being protectors (tuitores) and defenders, just as those who
have the care of the sacred edifices are called (rditui.
3. Parents may give tutors by testament to such of their children
as have not attained the age of puberty, and are under their power.
And this, without any distinction, in the case of all sons and daughters.
But grandfathers can only give tutors to their grandchildren when
114 INSTITUTIONS
these will not fall under the power of their father on the death of the
grandfather. Hence, if your son is in your power at the time of your
death, your grandchildren by that son cannot have a tutor appointed
them by your testament, although they were in your power; because,
at your decease, they will fall under the power of their father.
4. Posthumous children, as in many other respects, so also in this
respect, are considered as already born before the death of their fathers ;
and tutors may be given by testament to posthumous children, as well
as to children already born, provided that the posthumous children, had
they been born in the lifetime of their father, would have been sui
heredes, and in their father's power.
5. But if a father gives a tutor by testament to his emancipated
son, the appointment must be confirmed by the sentence of the presses
in all cases, that is, without inquiry.
XV. AGNATE TUTORSHIP
They to whom no tutor has been appointed by testament, have
their agnati as tutors, by the law of the Twelve Tables, and such tes-
tators are called "legal tutors."
i. Agnati are those who are related to each other through males^
that is, are related through the father, as, for instance, a brother by
the same father, or the son of a brother, or the son of such a son ; or,
again, a father's brother, or a father's brother's son, or the son of such
a son. But those who are related to us through the females are not
agnati, but merely cognat'i by their natural relationship. This the son
of a father's sister is related to you not by agnation, but by cognation,
and you are also related to him by cognation ; as children belong to the
family of their father, and not to that of their mother.
XVI. CHANGE OF STATION
The capitis deminutio is a change of status, which may happen in
three ways : for it may be the greatest capitis deminutio, or the less, also
called the middle, or the least.
1. The greater capitis deminutio is, when a man loses both his
citizenship and his liberty; as they do who by a terrible sentence are
made "the slaves of punishment ;" and freedmen, condemned to slavery
for ingratitude towards their patrons ; and all those who suffer them-
selves to be sold in order to share the price obtained.
2. The less or middle capitis deminutio is, when a man loses his
citizenship, but retains his liberty; as is the case when any one is
INSTITUTIONS 115
forbidden the use of fire and water, or is deported to an island.
3. The least capitis dcminutio is when a person's status is changed
without forfeiture either of citizenship or liberty; as when a person
sui juris become subject to the power of another, or a person alieni juris
becomes independent.
4. A slave who is manumitted is not said to be capite manutus, as
he has no "caput," or civil existence.
5. Those whose dignity rather than their status is changed, do
not suffer a capitis dcminutio, as those, for instance, who are removed
from the senatorial dignity.
6. In saying that the right of cognation remains in spite of a
capitis deminutio, we were speaking only of the least deminutio, after
which the cognation subsists. For, by the greater deminutio, as, for
example, if one of the cognati becomes a slave, the right of cognation
of wholly destroyed, so as not to be recovered even by manumission.
So, too, the right of cognation is lost by the less or middle deminutio,
as, for example, by deportation to an island.
7. The right to be tutor, which belongs to the agnati, does not
belong to all at the same time, but to the nearest in degree only ; or, if
there are many in the same degree, then to all in that degree. Several
brothers, for instance, in the same degree, are all equally called to be
tutor.
XVII. PATRON GUARDIANSHIP
By the same law of the Twelve Tables, the tutelage of freedmen
and freedwomen belongs to their patrons, and to the children of their
patrons ; and this tutelage is called legal tutelage, not that the law con-
tains any express provision on the subject, but because it has been as
firmly established by interpretation, as if it had been introduced by the
express words of the law. For, as the law had ordered that patrons
and their children should succeed to the inheritance of their freedmen
or freedwomen who should die intestate, the ancients were of opinion
that the intent of the law was that the tutelage also belonged to them ;
since the law which calls agnati to the inheritance, also appoints them
to be tutors, because, in most cases, where the advantage of the suc-
cession is, there also ought to be the burden of the tutelage. We say
"in most cases," because if a person below the age of puberty is manu-
mitted by a female, she is called to the inheritance, although another
person is tutor.
116 INSTITUTIONS
XX. APPOINTING OF TUTORS
If any one had no tutor at all, one was given him, in the city of
Rome by the prcetor urbanus, and a majority of the tribunes of the
plebs, under the lex Atilia; in the provinces, by the presides under the
lex Julia et Titia.
1. Again, if a testamentary tutor had been appointed condition-
ally, or for a certain time, until the completion of the condition or
arrival of the time fixed, another tutor might be appointed under the
same laws. Also, if a tutor had been given unconditionally, yet, as
long as no one had accepted the inheritance, as heir by the testament,
another tutor might be appointed for the interval. But this office ceased
when the condition was accomplished, when the time arrived, or the
inheritance was entered upon.
2. If, again, a tutor was taken prisoner by the enemy, application
could be made, under the same laws, for another tutor, whose office
ceased when the first tutor returned from captivity ; for on his return he
resumed the tutelage by the jus postliminii.
3. But tutors have ceased to be appointed under these laws, since
they have been appointed to pupils of either sex, first by the consuls,
after inquiry into the case, and afterwards by the praetors under imperial
constitutions. For above-mentioned laws required no security from
the tutors for the safety of the pupil's property, nor did they contain
any provisions to compel them to accept the office.
4. Under our present system tutors are appointed at Rome by
the prsefect of the city, or the praeter, according to his jurisdiction, and,
in the provinces, by the prcesides after inquiry ; or by an inferior magis-
trate, at the command of the prases, if the property of the pupil is only
small.
5. But by one of our constitutions, to do away with these dis-
tinctions of different persons, and to avoid the necessity of waiting for
the order of the presses, we have enacted, that if the property of the
pupil or adult does not exceed five hundred soldi, tutors or curators
shall be appointed by the dcfcnsorcs of the city, acting in conjunction
with the holy bishop, or by other public persons, that is, by the magis-
trates, or, in the city of Alexandria, by the judge ; and legal security
must be given according to the terms of the same constitution, that is
to say, at the risk of those who receive it.
6. It is agreeable to the law of nature that the persons under
INSTITUTIONS 117
the age of puberty should be under tutelage, so that persons of tender
years may be under the government of another.
7. As tutors administer the affairs of their pupils, they may be
compelled to account, by the actio tutela, when their pupils arrive at
puberty.
XXI. AUTHORITY OF TUTORS
In some cases it is necessary that the tutor should authorize the
acts of the pupil, in others not. When, for instance, the pupil stipulates
for something to be given him, the authorization of the tutor is not
requisite; but if the pupil makes the promise, it is requisite; for the
rule is, that pupils may make their condition better, but may not make
it worse, without the authorization of their tutor. And therefore in all
casses of reciprocal obligation, as in contracts of buying, selling, letting,
hiring, bailment, deposit, if the tutor does not authorize the pupil to
enter into the contract, the person who contracts with the pupil is bound,
but the pupil is not bound.
1. Pupils, however, cannot, without the authorization of the tutor,
enter on an inheritance, demand the possession of goods, or take an
inheritance given by a fideicommissum, even though to do so would be
to their gain, and could involve them in no risk.
2. A tutor who wishes to authorize any act, which he esteems
advantageous to his pupil, should do so at once while the business is
going on, and in person, for his authorization is of no effect if given
aftenvards or by letter.
3. When a suit is to be commenced between a tutor and his pupil,
as the tutor cannot give authority with regard to his own case, a curator,
and not, as formerly, a praetorian tutor, is appointed, with whose inter-
vention the suit is carried on, and who ceases to be curator when the
suit is determined.
XXII. FREEDOM FROM GUARDIANSHIP
Pupils, both male and femals, are freed from tutelage when they
attain»the age of puberty. The ancients judged of puberty in males,
not only by their years, but also by the development of their bodies.
But we, from a wish to conform to the purity of the present times, have
thought it proper, that what seemed even to the ancients, to be indecent
towards females, namely, the inspection of the body, should be thought
no less so towards males; and, therefore, by our sacred constitution,
we have enacted, that puberty in males should be considered to com-
118 INSTITUTIONS
mence immediately on the completion of their fourteenth year; while,
as to females, we have preserved the wise rule adopted by the ancients,
by which they are esteemed fit for marriage on the completion of their
twelfth year.
1. Tutelage is also determined, if the pupil, before attaining the
age of puberty, is either arrogated, or suffers deportation, or is re-
duced to slavery, or becomes a captive.
2. Again, if a person is appointed by testament to be tutor until
a condition is accomplished, he ceases to be tutor on the accomplish-
ment of the condition.
3. Tutelage ends also by the death of the tutor, or of the pupil.
4. When a tutor, by a capitis deminutio, loses his liberty or his
citizenship, his tutelage is in every case at an end. But, if he undergo
only the least capitis deminutio, as when a tutor gives himself in adop-
tion, then only legal tutelage is ended, and not the other kinds ; but any
capitis deminutio of the pupil, even the least, always puts an end to the
tutelage.
5. A tutor, again, who is appointed by testament to hold office
during a certain time, lays down his office when the time is expired.
6. They also cease to be tutors who are removed from their office
on suspicion, or who excuse themselves on good grounds from the bur-
den of the tutelage, and rid themselves of it according to the rules we
will give hereafter.
XXIII. CURATORSHIP.
Males arrived at the age of puberty, and females of a marriageable
age, receive curators, until they have completed their twenty-fifth year ;
for, although they have attained the age of puberty, they are still of an
age which makes them unfit to protect their own interests.
1. Curators are appointed by the same magistrates who appoint
tutors. A curator cannot be appointed by testament, but if appointed,
he may be confirmed in his office by a decree of the praeter of presses.
2. No adolescent is obliged to receive a curator against his will,
unless in case of a law-suit, for a curator may be appointed for a par-
ticular special purpose.
3. Madmen and prodigals, although past the age of twenty-five,
are yet placed under the curatorship of their agnati by the law of the
Twelve Tables. But, ordinarily, curators are appointed for them, at
Rome, by the prsefect of the city or the praetor ; in the provinces, by the
presides, after inquiry into the circumstances has been made. .
INSTITUTIONS 119
4. Persons who are of unsound mind, or who are deaf, mute, or
subject to any perpetual malady, since they are unable to manage their
own affairs, must be placed under curators.
5. Sometimes even pupils receive curators; as, for instance, when
the legal tutor is unfit for the office; for a person who already has a
tutor cannot have another given him; again, if a tutor appointed by
testament, or by the praetor or praeses is unfit to administer the affairs
of his pupil, although there is nothing fraudulent in the way he ad-
ministers them, it is usual to appoint a curator to act conjointly with
him. It is also usual to assign curators in the place of tutors excused
for a time only.
6. If a tutor is prevented by illness or otherwise from administer-
ing the affairs of his pupil, and his pupil is absent, or an infant, then the
praetor or praeses of the province will, at the tutor's risk, appoint by
decree some one to be the agent of his pupil.
XXIV. SECURITY BY GUARDIANS
To prevent the property of pupils and persons placed under curators
being wasted or destroyed by .tutors or curators, the praetor sees that
tutors and curators give security against such conduct. But this is not
always necessary ; a testamentary tutor is not compelled to give security,
as his fidelity and diligence have been recognized by the testator. And
tutors and curators appointed upon inquiry are not obliged to give
security, because they have been chosen as being proper persons.
I. If two or more are appointed by testament, or by a magistrate,
after inquiry, as tutors or curators, any of them, by offering security
for the indemnification of the pupil or adolescent, may be preferred to
his co-tutor or co-curator, so that he may either alone administer the
property, or may oblige his co-tutor or co-curator to give security, if
he wishes to obtain the preference, and become the sole administrator.
He cannot directly demand security from his co-tutor or co-curator ; he
must offer it himself, and so give his co-tutor or co-curator the choice to
receive or to give security. If no tutor or curator offers security, the
person appointed by the testator to manage the property shall manage
it; but if no such person be appointed, then the administration will fall
to the person whom a majority of the tutors shall choose, as is provided
for the praetorian edict If the tutors disagree in their choice, the
praetor must interpose. And in the same way, when several are
appointed after inquiry by a magistrate, a majority is to determine who
shall administer.
120 INSTITUTIONS
2. It should be observed that it is not only tutors and curators
who are responsible for their administration to pupils, minors, and the
other persons we have mentioned, but, as a last safeguard, a subsidiary
action may be brought against the magistrate who has accepted the
security as sufficient The subsidiary action may be brought against
a magistrate who has wholly omitted to take security, or lias taken
insufficient security; and the liability to this action, according to the
responses of the jurisprudents as well as the imperial constitutions, ex-
tends also to the heirs of the magistrate.
3. The same constitutions also expressly enact, that tutors and
curators who do not give security, may be compelled to do so by seizure
of their goods as pledges.
4. Neither the praefect of the city, nor the -praetor, nor the presses
of a province, nor any one else to whom the appointment of tutors
belongs, will be liable to this action, but only those whose ordinary duty
is to exact the security.
XXV. DE EXCUSATIONIBUS TUTORUM VEL CURATORUM
Tutors and curators are excused on different grounds; most fre-
quently on account of the number of their children, whether in their
power or emancipated. For any one who at Rome has three children
living, in Italy four, or in the provinces five, may be excused from
being tutor or curator as from other offices, for the office of both a tutor
and a curator is considered a public one. Adopted children will not
avail the adopter, but though given in adoption are reckoned in favor
of their natural father. Grandchildren by a son may be reckoned in
the number, so as to take the place of their father, but not grandchildren
by a daughter. It is only those children who are living that can be
reckoned to excuse any one from being tutor or curator, and not those
who are dead. It has been questioned, however, whether those who
have perished in war may not be reckoned ; and it has been decided, that
those who die in battle may, but they only, for glory renders those
immortal who have fallen for their country.
1. The Emperor Marcus declared by rescript in his Seiiustria,
that a person engaged in administering the property of the fiscus is
excused from being tutor or curator while his administration lasts.
2. Persons absent on the service of the state are excused from
being tutors or curators ; and if those who have already been appointed
either as tutors or curators, should afterwards be absent on the public
service, they are excused during their absence, and meanwhile curators
INSTITUTIONS 121
arc appointed in their place. On their return, they must again take
upon them the burden of the tutelage; and, according to Papinian's
opinion, expressed in the fifth book of his answers, are not entitled to
the privilege of a year's vacation, which is only allowed them when they
are called to a new tutelage.
3. By a rescript of the Emperor Marcus, all persons invested with
magisterial power may excuse themselves; but they cannot abandon
the office of tutor, which they have already undertaken.
4. No tutor or curator can excuse himself by alleging a law-
suit with the pupil or adult ; unless the suit embraces the whole of the
goods, or the property, or is for an inheritance.
5. Three tutelages or curatorships, if unsolicited, serve as an
excuse from filling any other such office, while the holder continues
to discharge duties. But the tutelage of several pupils, or the curator-
ship of an undivided property, as where the pupils or adults are
brothers, is reckoned as one only.
6. Poverty is a sufficient excuse, when it can be proved such as
to render a man incapable of the burden imposed upon him, according
to the rescripts given both by the imperial brothers together, and by
the Emperor Marcus singly.
7. Illness also, if it prevents a man from superintending his own
affairs, affords a ground of excuse.
8. So, too, a person who cannot read must be excused, according
to the rescript of the Emperor Antonious Pius ; but persons who cannot
read are sometimes considered capable of administering.
9. If it is through enmity that the father appoints by testament
any one as tutor, this circumstance itself will afford a sufficient excuse ;
just as, on the other hand, they who have promised the father of the
pupils to fill the office of tutor, cannot be excused.
10. That the tutor was unknown to the father of a pupil is not
of itself to be admitted as a sufficient excuse, as is decided by a rescript
of the imperial brothers.
11. Enmity against the father of the pupil or adult, if of a deadly
character, and no reconciliation has taken place, is usually considered
as an excuse from being tutor or curator.
12. So, too, he whose status has been called in question by the
father of the pupil, is excused from the office of tutor.
13. Persons above seventy years of age may be excused from
being tutors of curators. Persons under the age of twenty-five were
formerly excused, but by our constitution, they are now prohibited
B-
122 INSTITUTIONS
from aspiring to these offices, so that excuses are become unnecessary.
This constitution provides that neither pupils nor adults shall be called
to a legal tutelage. For it is absurd that persons who are themselves
governed, and are known to need assistance in the administration of
their own affairs, should become the tutors or curators of others.
14. The same rule holds good also as to military persons. They
cannot, even though they wish it, be admitted to the office of tutor
or curator.
15. Grammarians, rhetoricians, and physicians at Rome, and those
who exercise such profession in their own country, and are within the
number authorized, are exempted from being tutors or curators.
1 6. If a person wishes to excuse himself, and has several excuses,
even supposing some are not admitted, there is nothing to prevent him
employing others, providing he does so within the prescribed time.
Those who wish to excuse themselves are not to appeal, but whatever
kind of tutors they may be, that is, however they may have been ap-
pointed, must offer their excuses within the fifty days next after they
have known of their appointment, if they are within a hundred miles of
the place when they were appointed. If they are at a greater distance
they are allowed a day for every twenty miles, and thirty days besides ;
but the time should, as Scaevola said, be so calculated as never to be
less than fifty days in the whole.
i. The tutor who is appointed is considered as appointed for the
whole patrimony.
1 8. A person who has discharged the office of tutor is not com-
pelled against his will to become the curator of the same person; so
much so, that although the father, after appointing a tutor by testa-
ment, adds that he also appoints the same person to be curator, the per-
son so appointed if unwilling cannot be compelled to take the office of
curator ; so it has been decided by the rescript of the Emperors Severus
and Antonius.
19. The same emperors have decided by rescript, that a husband
appointed as curator to his wife may excuse himself from the office,
even after he has intermeddled with her affairs.
20. If any one has succeeded by false allegations in getting him-
self excused from the office of tutor, he is not discharged from the
burden of the office.
XXVI. SUSPECTED GUARDIANS
The right of accusing a suspected tutor or curator is derived from
INSTITUTIONS 123
the law of the Twelve Tables.
1. The power of removing suspected tutors belongs at Rome to
the praetor; in the provinces to the pr<xsides, or to the legate of the
proconsul.
2. We have shown what magistrates may take cognizance of sus-
pected persons : let us now inquire, what persons may become suspected.
All tutors may become so, whether testamentary, or others ; thus even
a legal tutor may be accused. But what is the case with a patron ? He,
too, may be accused ; but we must remember, that his reputation must
be spared, although he be removed as suspected.
3. Let us inquire, by whom suspected persons may be accused.
Now an accusation of this sort is in a measure public, that is, it is open
to all. Nay, by a rescript of the Emperors Severus and Antoninus,
even women are admitted to be accusers ; but only those who are in-
duced to do so through feelings of affection, as a mother, a nurse, or a
grandmother, or a sister, who may all become accusers. But the praetor
will admit any other woman to make the accusation, in whom he recog-
nizes a real affection, and who, without overstepping the modesty of
her sex, is impelled by this affection not to endure the pupil suffering
harm.
4. No person below the age of puberty can bring an accusation
against his tutor as suspected: but those who have attained that age
may, under the advice of their near relations, accuse their curators.
Such is the decision given in a rescript of the Emperors Severus and
Antoninus.
5. A tutor is suspected who does not faithfully execute his trust,
although perfectly solvent, as Julian writes, who also thinks that even
before he enters on his office, a tutor may be removed, as suspected;
and a constitution has been made in accordance with this opinion.
6. A suspected person, if removed on account of fraud, is in-
famous, but not if for neglect only.
7. If an action is brought against any one as suspected, his ad-
ministration, according to Papinian, is suspended while the accusation
is pending.
8. If a process is commenced against a tutor or curator, as sus-
pected, and he dies while it is going on, the process is at an end.
9. If a tutor fails to appear, that a certain amount of maintenance
may be fixed on for his pupil, it is provided by a rescript of the
Emperors Severus and Antoninus, that the pupil shall be put into the
possession of the effects of the tutor, and that after a curator has been
124 INSTITUTIONS
appointed, those things, which are perishable, may be sold. There-
fore a tutor who does not afford maintenance to his pupil may be re-
moved, as suspected.
10. But if the tutor appears, and denies that maintenance can
be allowed in consequence of the smallness of the pupil's estate; if
he says this falsely, he shall be handed over to the praefect of the city,
to be punished, just as a person is handed over who has purchased a
tutelage by bribery.
1 1. Also a freedman, who is proved to have been guilty of fraud,
when acting as tutor to the son or grandson of the patron, is handed
over the the praefect of the city to be punished.
12. Lastly, it must be known that they who are guilty of fraud
in their administration, must be removed, althought they offer sufficient
security. For giving security makes no change in the malevolent pur-
pose of the tutor, but only procures him a longer opporunity of injur-
ing the estate.
13. We also deem every man suspected, whose conduct is such
that we cannot but suspect him. A tutor or curator who is faithful and
diligent, is not to be removed, as a suspected person, merely because
he is poor.
BOOK II. OF THINGS
I. DIVISIONS OF THINGS
In the preceding book we have treated of the law of persons. Let
us now speak of things, which either are in our patrimony, or not in
our patrimony. For some things by the law of nature are common to
all ; some are public ; some belong to corporate bodies, and some belong
to no one. Most things are the property of individuals, who acquire
them in defferent ways, as will appear hereafter.
1. By the law of nature these things are common to mankind —
the air, running water, the sea, and consequently the shores of the sea.
No one, therefore, is forbidden to approach the seashore, provided that
he respects habitations, monuments, and buildings, which are not, like
the sea, subject only to the law of nations.
2. All rivers and ports are public ; hence the right of fishing in a
port, or in rivers, is common to all men.
3. The seashore extends as far as the greatest winter flood runs up.
INSTITUTIONS 1-
4. The public use of the banks of a river is part of the law of
nations, just as is that of the river itself. All persons, therefore, are-
as much at liberty to bring their vessels to the bank, to fasten ropes
to the trees growing there, and to place any part of their cargo there,
as to navigate the river itself. But the banks of a river are the property
of those whose land they adjoin ; and consequently the trees growing on
them are also the property of the same persons.
5. The public use of the seashore, too, is part of the law of
nations, as is that of the sea itself; and, therefore, any person is at
liberty to place on it a cottage, to which he may retreat, or to dry his
nets there, and haul them from the sea ; for the shores may be said to-
be the property of no man, but are subject to the same law as the
sea itself, and the sand or ground beneath it.
6. Among things belonging to a corporate body, not to individ-
uals, are, for instance, buildings in cities, theaters, race-courses, and
other similar places belonging in common to a whole city.
7. Things sacred, religious, and holy, belong to no one ; for that
which is subject to divine law is not the property of any one.
8. Things are sacred which have been duly consecrated by the
pontiffs, as sacred buildings and offerings, properly dedicated to the
service of God, which we have forbidden by our constitiution to be
sold or mortgaged, except for the purposes of purchasing the freedom
of captives. But, if any one consecrates a building, by his own
authority, it is not sacred, but profane. But ground on which a sacred
edifice has once been erected, even after the building has been de-
stroyed, continues to be sacred, as Papinian also writes.
9. Any man at his pleasure makes a place religious by burying:
a dead body in his own ground ; but it is not permitted to bury a dead
body in land hitherto pure, which is held in common, against the wishes
of a coproprietor. But when a sepulchre is held in common, any one
coproprietor may bury in it, even against the wishes of the rest. So,
too, if another person has the usufruct, the proprietor may not, without
the consent of the usufructuary, render the place religious. But a
dead body may be laid in a place belonging to another person, with the
consent of the owner; and even if the owner only ratifies the act after
the dead body has been buried, yet the place is religious.
10. Holy things also, as the walls and gates of a city, are to a cer-
tain degree subject to divine law, and therefore are not part of the
property of any one. The walls of a city are said to be holy, inas-
much as any offence against them is punished capitally ; so, too, those
126 INSTITUTIONS
parts of laws by which punishments are established against transgres-
sors, we term sanctions.
11. Things become the property of individuals in various ways;
of some we acquire the ownership by natural law, which, as we have
observed, is also termed the law of nations ; of others by the civil law.
It will be most convenient to begin with the more ancient law ; and it is
very evident that the law of nature, established by nature at the first
origin of mankind, is the more ancient, for civil laws could then only
begin to exist when states began to be founded, magistrates to be cre-
ated, and laws to be written.
12. Wild beasts, birds, fish and all animals, which live either in
the sea, the air, or the earth, so soon as they are taken by any one, im-
mediately become by the law of nations the property of the captor ; for
natural reason gives to the first occupant that which had no previous
owner. And it is immaterial whether a man takes wild beasts or birds
upon his own ground, or on that of another. Of course any one who
enters the ground of another for the sake of hunting or fowling, may
be prohibited by the proprietor, if he perceives his intention of entering.
Whatever of this kind you take is regarded as your property, so long
as it remains in your power, but when it has escaped and recovered its
natural liberty, it ceases to be yours, and again becomes the property of
him who captures it. It is considered to have recovered its natural
liberty, if it has either escaped out of your sight, or if, though not out
of your sight, it yet could not be pursued without great difficulty.
13. It has been asked, whether, if you have wounded a wild
beast, so that it could be easily taken, it immediately becomes your
property. Some have thought that it does become yours directly you
wound it, and that it continues to be yours while you continue to pursue
it, it then ceases to be yours, and again becomes the property of the
first person who captures it. Others have thought that it does not be-
come your property until you have captured it. We confirm this latter
opinion, because many accidents may happen to prevent your capturing
it.
14. Bees also are wild by nature. Therefore, bees that swarm
upon your tree, until you have^hived them are no more considered to
be your property than the birds which build their nests on your tree;
so, if any one hive them, he becomes their owner. Any one, too, is at
liberty to take the honeycombs the bees may have made. But of course,
if, before anything has been taken, you see any one entering on your
land, you have a right to prevent his entering. A swarm which has
INSTITUTIONS 127
flown from your hive is still considered yours as long as it is in your
sight and may easily be pursued ; otherwise it becomes the property of
the first person that takes it.
15. Peacocks, too, and pigeons are naturally wild, nor does it
make any difference that they are in the habit of flying out and then
returning again, for bees, which without doubt are naturally wild, do
so too. Some persons have deer so tame, that they will go into the
woods, and regularly again return; yet no one denies that deer are
naturally wild. But, with respect to animals which are in the habit
of going and returning, the rule has been adopted, that they are con-
sidered yours as long as they have the intention of returning, but if
they cease to have this intention, they cease to be yours, and become the
property of the first person that takes them. These animals are sup-
posed to have lost the intention, when they have lost the habit, of re-
turning.
16. But fowls and geese are not naturally wild, which we may
learn from there being particular kinds of fowls and geese which we
term wild. And, therefore, if your geese or fowls should be frightened,
and take flight, they are still regarded as yours wherever they may be,
although you may have lost sight of them ; and whoever detains such
animals with a view to his own profit, commits a theft.
17. The things we take from our enemies become immediately
ours by the law of nations, so that even freemen thus become our
slaves ; but if they afterwards escape from us, and return to their own
people, they regain their former condition.
18. Precious stones, gems, and other things, found upon the sea-
shore, become immediately, by natural law, the property of the finder.
19. All that is born of animals of which you are the owner, be-
comes by the same law your property.
20. Moreover, the alluvial soil added by a river to your land be-
comes yours by the law of nations. Alluvion is an imperceptible in-
crease; and that is added so gradually that no one can perceive how
much is added at any one moment of time.
21. But if the violence of a river should bear away a portion of
your land and unite it to the land of your neighbor, it undoubtedly still
continues yours. If, however, it remains for a long united to your
neighbor's land, and the trees, which it swept away with it, take root
in his ground, these trees from that time become part of your neigh-
bor's estate.
22. When an island is formed in the sea, which rarely happens,
128 INSTITUTIONS
it is the property of the first occupant ; for before occupation, it belongs
to no one. But when an island is formed in a river, which frequently
happens, if it is -placed in the middle of it, it belongs in common to
those who possess the lands near the banks on each side of the river,
in proportion to the extent of each man's estate adjoining the banks.
But, if the island is nearer to one side than the other, it belongs to those
persons only who possess lands contiguous to the bank on that side.
If a river divides itself and afterwards unites again, thus giving to any
one's land the form of an island, the land still continues to belong to
the person to whom it belonged before.
23. If a river, entirely forsaking its natural channel, begins to
flow in another direction, the old bed of the iriver belongs to those who
possess the lands adjoining its banks, in proportion to the extent that
their respective estates adjoin the banks. The new bed follows the
condition of the river, that is, it becomes public. And, if after some
time the river returns to its former channel, the new bed again be-
comes the property of those who possess the lands contiguous to its
banks.
24. The case is quite different' if any one's land is completely in-
undated ; for the inundation does not alter the nature of the land, and
therefore, when the waters have receded, the land is indisputably the
property of its former owner.
25. When one man has made anything with materials belonging
to another, it is often asked which, according to natural reason, ought
to be considered the proprietor, whether he who gave the form, or he
rather who owned the materials. For instance, suppose a person has
made wine, oil, or wheat, from the grapes, olives, or ears of corn be-
longing to another ; has cast a vessel out of gold, silver, or brass, be-
longing to another ; has made mead with .an other man's wine and honey ;
has composed a plaster, or eye-salve, with another man's medicaments ;
has made a garment with another man's wool ; or a ship, or a bench,
with another man's timber. After a long controversy between the
Sabinians and Proculians, a middle opinion has been adopted based on
the following distinction. If the thing made can be reduced to its
former rude materials, then the owner of the materials is also con-
sidered -the owner of the thing made ; but, if the thing cannot be so
reduced, then he who made it is the owner of it. For example, a vessel
when cast, can easily be reduced to its rude materials of brass, silver,
or gold; but wine, oil, or wheat, cannot be reconverted into grapes,
olives, or ears of corn ; nor can mead be resolved into wine and honey.
INSTITUTIONS 129
But, if a man has made anything, partly with his own materials and
partly with the materials of another, as if he has made mead with his
own wine and another man's honey, or a plaster or eye-salve, partly
with his own, and partly with another man's medicaments, or a gar-
ment with his own and also with another man's wool, then in such
cases, he who made the thing is undoubtedly the proprietor ; since he
not only gave his labor, but furnished also a part of the materials.
26. If, however, any one has woven purple belonging to another
into his own vestment, the purple, although the more valuable, attaches
to the vestment as an accession, and its former owner has an action of
theft and a condiction against the person who stole it from him, whether
it was he or some one else who made the vestment. For although
things which have perished cannot be reclaimed by vindication, yet this
gives ground for a condiction against the thief, and against many other
possessors.
27. If materials belonging to two persons are mixed together by
their mutual consent, whatever is thence produced is common to both,
as if, for instance, they have intermixed their wines, or melted together
their gold or silver. And although the materials .are different which
are employed in the admixture, and thus a new substance is formed,
as when mead is made with wine and honey, or electrum by fusing to-
gether gold and silver, the rule is the same; for in this case the new
substance is undoubtedly common. And if it is by chance, and not by
intention of the proprietors, that materials, whether similar or different,
are mixed together, the rule is still the same.
28. If the wheat of Titius is mixed with yours, when this takes
place by mutual consent, the mixed heap belongs to you in common ;.
because each body, that is, each grain, which before was the property
of one or other of you, has by your mutual consent been made your
common property; but, if the intermixture were accidental, or made
by Titius without your consent, the mixed wheat does not then belong
to you both in common ; because the grains still remain distinct, and
retain their proper substance. The wheat in such a case no more be-
comes common to you both, than a flock would be, if the sheep of Titius
were mixed with yours; but, if either of you keep the whole
quantity of mixed wheat, the other has a real action for the amount of
wheat belonging to him, but it is in the province of the judge to esti-
mate the quality of the wheat belonging to each.
29. If a man builds upon his own ground with the materials of
another, he is considered the proprietor of the building, because every-
130 INSTITUTIONS
thing built on the soil accedes to it. The owner of the materials does
not, however, cease to be owner, only while the building stands he can-
not claim the materials, or demand to have them exhibited, on account
of the law of the Twelve Tables, providing that no one is to be com-
pelled to take away the tignum of another which has been made part
of his own building, but that he may be made, by the action de tigno
injuncto, to pay double the value ; and under the term tignum all mate-
rials for building are comprehended. The object of this provision was
to prevent the necessity of buildings being pulled down. But if the
building is destroyed from any cause, then the owner of the materials,
if he has not already obtained the double value, may reclaim the mate-
rials, and demand to 'have them exhibited.
30. On the contrary, if any one builds with his own materials on
the ground of another, the building becomes the property of him to
whom the ground belongs. But in this case the owner of the property,
because he is presumed to have voluntarily parted with them, that is,
if he knew he was building upon another's land ; and, therefore, if the
building should be destroyed, he cannot, even then, reclaim the mate-
rials. Of course, if the person who builds is in possession of the soil,
and the owner of the soil claims the building, but refuses to pay the
price of the materials and the wages of the workmen, the owner may
be repelled by an exception of dolus malus, provided the builder was
in possession bona fide. For if he knew that he was not the owner of
the soil, it may be said against him that he was wrong to build on
ground which he knew to be the property of another.
31. If Titius places another man's plant in ground belonging to
himself, the plant will belong to Titius; on the contrary, if Titius
places his own plant in the ground of Maevius, the plant will belong
then to Msevius — that is if, in either case the plant has taken root ; for
before it has taken root, it remains the property of its former owner.
But from the time it has taken root, the property in it is changed ; so
much so, that if the tree of a neighbor presses so closely on the ground
of Titius as to take root in it, we pronounce that the tree becomes the
property of Titius. For reason does not permit that a tree should be
considered the property of any one else than of him in whose ground
it has taken root; and, therefore, if a tree, planted near a boundary
extends its roots into the lands of a neighbor, it becomes common.
32. As plants rooted in the earth accede to the soil, so, in the same
way, grains of wheat which have been sown are considered to accede
to the soil. But as he who has built on the ground of another may,
INSTITUTIONS 131
according to what we have said, defend himself by an exception ot
Joins mains, if the proprietor of the ground claims the building, so
also he may protect himself by the aid of the same exception, who, at his
own expense and acting bona fide, has sown another man's land.
33. Written characters, although of gold, accede to the paper or
parchment on which they are written, just as whatever is built on, or
sown in, the soil, accedes to the soil. And, therefore, if Titius has
written a poem, a history, or an oration, on your paper or parchment,
you, and not Titius, are the owner of the written paper. But if you
claim your books or parchments from Titius, but refuse to defray the
cost of the writing, then Titius can defend himself by an exception
of dolns malus; that is if it was bona fide that he obtained possession of
the papers or parchments.
34. If a person has painted on the tablet of another, some think
that the tablet accedes to the picture, others, that the picture, of what-
ever quality it may be, accedes to the tablet. It seems to us the
better opinion, that the tablet should accede to the picture; for it is
ridiculous that a painting of Apelles or Parrhasius should be but the
accessory of a thoroughly worthless tablet. But if the owner of the
tablet is in possession of the picture, the painter, should he claim it
from him, but refuse to pay the value of the tablet, may be repelled by
the exception of dolus malus. If the painter is in possession of the
picture, the law permits the owner of the tablet to bring a utilis actio
against him; and in this case, if the owner of the tablet does not pay
the cost of the picture, he may also be repelled by an exception of doltis
malus; that is if the painter obtained possession bona fide. If the tablet
has been stolen, whether by the painter or by any one else, the owner ol
the tablet may bring an action of theft.
35. If any person has bona fide purchased land from another,
whom he believed to be the true owner, when in fact he was not, or has
bona fide acquired it from such person by gift or by other good title,
natural reason demands that the fruits which he has gathered shall
be his in return for his care and culture. And, therefore, if the real
owner afterwards appears and claims his land, he can have no action
for fruits which the possessor has consumed. But the same allowance
is not made to him who has knowingly been in possession of another's
estate, and, therefore, he is compelled to restore, together with the
lands, all the fruits, although they may have been consumed.
36. The usufructuary of land is not owner of the fruits until he
has himself gathered them; and, therefore, if he should die while the
132 INSTITUTIONS
fruits, although ripe, are yet ungathered, they do not belong to his
heirs, but are the property of the owner of the soil. And nearly the
same may be said of the colonus.
37. In the fruits of animals are included their young, as well as
their milk, hair and wool ; and, therefore, lambs, kids, calves, colts, and
young pigs, immediately on their birth become, by the law of nature, the
property of the usufructory, but the offspring of a female slave
is not considered a fruit, but belongs to the owner of the property.
For it seemed absurd that man should be reckoned as a fruit, when it
is for man's benefit that all fruits are provided by nature.
38. The usufructuary of a flock ought to replace any of the flock
that may happen to die, by supplying the deficiency out of the young,
as also Julian was of opinion. So, too, the usufructuary ought to
supply the place of dead vines or trees. For he ought to cultivate with
care, and to use everything as a good father of a family would use it.
39. The Emperor Hadrian, in accordance with natural equity,
allowed any treasure found by a man in his own land to belong to the
finder, as also any treasure found by chance in a sacred or religious
place. But treasure found without any express search, but by mere
chance, in a place belonging to another, he granted half to the
finder, and half to the proprietor of the soil. Consequently, if any-
thing is found in a place belonging to the emperor, half belongs to the
finder, and half to the emperor. And hence it follows, that if a man
finds anything in a place belonging to the fiscus, the public, or a city, half
ought to belong to the finder, and half to the fiscus or the city.
40. Another mode of acquiring things according to natural law is
traditional ; for nothing is more conformable to natural equity than that
the wishes of a person, who is desirous to transfer his property to
another, should be confirmed ; and, therefore, corporeal things, of what-
ever kind, may be so passed by tradition, and when so passed by their
owner, are made the property of another. In this way are alienated
stipendiary and tributary lands, that is, lands in the provinces, between
which and Italian lands there is now, by our constitution, no difference,
so that when tradition is made of them for purpose of a gift, a marriage
portion, or any other object, the property in them is undoubtedly trans-
ferred.
41. But things sold and delivered are not acquired by the buyer
until he has paid the seller the price, or satisfied him in some way or
other, as by procuring some one to be security, or by giving a pledge.
And, although this is provided by a law of the Twelve Tables, yct.it
INSTITUTIONS 133
may be rightly said to spring from the law of nations, that is, the law
of nature. But if the seller has accepted the credit of the buyer, the
thing then becomes immediately the property of the buyer.
42. It is immaterial whether the owner deliver the thing himself,
or some one else by his desire.
43. Hence, if any one is instructed by an owner with the uncon-
trolled administration of all kis goods and he sells and delivers any-
thing which is a part of these goods, he passes the property in it to the
person who receives the thing.
44. Sometimes, too, the mere wish of the owner, without tradition,
is sufficient to transfer the property in a tiling, as when a person has
lent, or let to you anything, or deposited anything with you, and then
afterwards sells or gives it to you. For, although he has not de-
livered it to you for the purpose of the sale or gift, yet by the mere
fact of his consenting to it becoming yours, you instantly acquire the
property in it, as fully as if it had actually been delivered to you for the
express purpose of passing the property.
45. So, too, any one, who has sold goods deposited in a ware-
house, as soon as he has handed over the keys of the warehouse to the
buyer, transfers to the buyer the property in the goods.
46. Nay, more, sometimes the intention of an owner, although
directed only towards an uncertain person, transfers the property in a
thing. For instance, when the praetors and consuls throw their lar-
gesses to the mob, they do not know what each person in the mob will
get; but as it is their intention that each should get what he gets,
they make what each gets immediately belong to him.
47. Accordingly, it is true to say that anythng which is seized
on, when abandoned by its owners, becomes the property of the person
who takes possession of it. And anything is considered as abandoned
which its owner has thrown away with a wish no longer to have it as a
part of his property, as it therefore immediately ceases to belong to
him.
48. It is otherwise with respect to things thrown overboard in
a storm, to lighten a vessel; for they remain the property of their
owners; as it is evident that they were not thrown away through a
wish to get rid of them, but that their owners and the ship itself might
more easily escape the dangers of the esa. Hence, any one who, with a
view to profit himself by these, takes them away when washed on shore,
or found at sea, is guilty of theft. And much the same may be said as
134 INSTITUTIONS
to things which drop from a carriage in motion without the knowledge
of their owners.
II. INCORPOREAL THINGS
Certain things, again, are corporeal, others incorporeal.
1. Corporeal things are those which are by their nature tangible,
as land, a slave, a garment, gold, silver, and other things innumerable.
2. Incorporal things are those which are not tangible, such as
are those which consist of a right, as an inheritance, a usufruct, use,
or obligations in whatever way contracted. Nor does it make any dif-
ference that things corporeal are contained in an inheritance; fruits,
gathered by the usufructuary, are corporeal ; and that which is due to us
by virtue of an obligation, is generally a corporeal thing, as a field, a
slave, or money ; while the right of inheritance, the right of usufruct,
and the right of obligation, are incorporeal.
3. Among things incorporeal are the rights over estates, urban
and rural, which are also called servitudes.
III. SERVITUDES
The servitudes of rural immoveables are, the right of passage, the
right of passage for beasts or vehicles, the right of way, the right of
passage for water. The right of passage is the right of going or pass-
ing for a man, not of driving beasts or vehicles. The right of passage
for beasts or vehicles is the right of driving beasts or vehicles over the
land of another. So a man who has the right of passage simply has not
the right of passage for beasts or vehicles ; but if he has the latter right
he has the former, and he may use the right of passing without having
any beasts with him. The right of way is the right of going, of driving
beasts or vehicles, and of walking; for the right of way includes the
right of passage, and the right of passage for beasts or vehicles. The
right of passage for water is the right of conducting water through the
land of another.
I. The servitudes of urban immoveables are those which apper-
tain to buildings, and they are said to be servitudes of urban immove-
ables, because we term all edifices urban immoveables, although really
built in the country. Among these servitudes are the following:
that a person has to support the weight of an adjoining house, that a
neighbor should have the right of inserting a beam into his wall, that
he has to receive or not to receive the water that drops from the roof,
or that runs from the gutter of another man's house on to his building,
INSTITUTIONS 1»
or into hie court or drain ; or that he is not to raise his house higher, or
not to obstruct his neighbor's lights.
2. Some think that among the servitudes of rural estates are
rightly included the right of drawing water, of watering cattle, of feed-
ing cattle, of burning lime or digging sand.
3. These servitudes are called the servitudes of immovables, be-
cause they cannot exist without immovables. For no one can acquire
or owe a servitude of a rural or urban immovable, unless he has an im-
movable belonging to him.
4. If any one wishes to create a right of this sort in favor of
his neighbor, he must effect it by agreements and stipulations. A per-
son can also, by testament, oblige his heir not to raise his house higher,
not to obstruct his neighbor's lights, to permit a neighbor to insert a
beam into his wall, or to receive the water from an adjoining roof; or,
again, he may oblige his heir to allow a neighbor to go across his land,
or to drive beasts or vehicles, or to conduct water across it.
IV. USUFRUCT.
Usufruct is the right of using, and taking the fruits of things be-
longing to others, so long as the substance of the things used remains.
It is a right over a corporeal thing, and if this thing perish, the usufruct
itself necessarily perishes also.
». The usufruction is detached from the property; and this separ-
ation takes place in many ways ; for example, if the usufruct is given to
any one as a legacy; foi the heir has then the bare ownership, and the
legatee has the usufruct; conversely, if the estate is given as a legacy,
subject to the deduction of the usufruct, the legatee has the bare owner-
ship, and the heir has the usufruct. Again, the usufruct may be given
as a legacy to one person, and the estate minus this usufruct may be
given to another. If any one wishes to constitute a usufruct other-
wise than by testament, he must effect it by pacts and stipulations. But,
lest the property should be rendered wholly profitless by the usufruct
being for ever detached, it has been thought right that there should be
certain ways in which the usufruct should become extinguished, and
revert to the property.
2. A usufruct may be constituted not only of lands and buildings,
but also of slaves, of beasts of burden, and everything else except those
which are consumed by being used, for they are susceptible of a usu-
fruct neither by natural nor by civil law. Among these things are
wine, oil, garments, and we may almost say coined money ; for it, too,
136 INSTITUTIONS
is in a manner consumed by use, as it continually passes from hand to
hand. But the senate, thinking such a measure would be useful, has
enacted that a usufruct even of these things may be constituted, if suffi-
cient security be given to the heir; and, therefore, if the usufruct of
money is given to a legatee, the money is considered to be given to him
in complete ownership ; but he has to give security to the heir for the re-
payment of an equal sum in the event of his death or his undergoing
a capitis deminutio. All other things, too, of the same kind are de-
livered to the legatee so as to become his property ; but their value is
estimated and security is given for the payment of the amount at which
they are valued, in the event of the legatee dying or undergong a capita*
deminutio. The senate has not then, to speak strictly, created a usufruct
of these things, for that was impossible, but, by requiring security, has
established a right analogous to a usufruct.
3. The usufruct terminates by the death of the usufructuary, by
two kinds of capitis deminutio, namely, the greatest and the middle,
and also by not being used according to the manner and during the
time fixed ; all which points have been decided by our constitution. The
usufruct is also terminated if the usufructuary surrenders it to the
owner of the property (a cession to a stranger would not have this ef-
fect) ; or, again, by the usufructuary acquiring the property, which is
called consolidation. Again, if a building is consumed by fire, or thrown
down by an earthquake, or falls down through decay, the usufruct of it
is necessarily destroyed, nor does there remain any usufruct due even
of the soil on which it stood.
4. When the usufruct is entirely extinguished, it is reunited to
the property ; and the person who had the'bare ownership begins thence-
forth to have full power over the thing.
V. USE AND HABITATION
The naked use is constituted by the same means as the usufruct ;
and is terminated by .the same means that make the usufruct to cease.
1. The -right of use is less extensive than that of usufruct; for
he who has the naked use of lands, has nothing more than the right of
taking herbs, fruit, flowers, hay, straw, and wood, sufficient for his
daily supply. He is permitted to establish himself upon the land, so
long as he neither annoys the owner, nor hinders those who are en-
gaged in the cultivation of the soil. He cannot let, or sell, or give
gratuitously his right to another, while a usufructuary may.
2. He who has the use of a house, has nothing more than the right
INSTITUTIONS 137
of inhabiting it himself; for he cannot transfer this right to another;
and it is not without considerable doubt that it has been thought allow-
able that he should receive a guest in the house, but he may live in it
with his wife and children, and freedmen, and other free persons who
may be attached to his service no less than his slaves are. A wife, in
the same way, if it is she who has the use of the house, may live in
it with her husband.
3. So, too, he who has the use of a slave, has only the right of
himself using the labor and services of the slave: for he is not per-
mitted in any way to transfer his right to another. And it is the
same with regard to beasts of burden.
4. If the use of a flock or herd, as, for instance, of a flock of
sheep, be given as a legacy, the person who has the use cannot take the
milk, the lambs, or the wool, for these are among the fruits. But he
may certainly make use of the flock to manure his land.
5. If the right of habitation is given to any one, either as a
legacy or in any other way, this does not seem a use or a usufruct, but
a right that stands as it were by itself. From a regard to what is
useful, and conformably to an opinion of Marcellus, we have published
a decision, by which we have permitted those who have this right of
habitation, not only themselves to inhabit the place over which the
right extends, but also to let to others the right of inhabiting it.
6. Let it suffice to have said thus much concerning servitudes, usu-
fruct, use and habitation. We shall treat of inheritances and obliga-
tions in their proper places. We have already briefly explained how
things are acquired by the law of nations ; let us now examine how they
are acquired by the civil law.
VI. TITLE THROUGH POSSESSION
By the civil law it was provided, that if any one by purchase, gify
or any other legal means, had bona fide received a thing from a person
who was not the owner, but whom he thought to be ^o, he should
acquire this thing by use if he held it for one year, if it were moveable,
wherever it might be, or for two years, if it were an immoveable, but
this if it were in the solum Italicum; the object of this provision being
to prevent the ownership of things remaining in uncertainly. Such was
the decision of the ancients, who thought the times we have mentioned
sufficient for owners to search for their property, but we have come
to a much better decision, from a wish to prevent owners being despoiled
of their property too quickly, and to prevent the benefit of this mode of
V 3-9
138 INSTITUTIONS
acquisition being confined to any particular locality. We have, accord-
ingly, published a constitution providing that movables be acquired
by a use extending for three years, and immovables by the "possession
of long time," that is, ten years for persons present, and twenty years
for persons absent; and that by these means, provided a just cause
of possession precede, the ownership of things may be acquired, not
only in Italy, but in every country subject to our empire.
1. Sometimes, however, although the thing be possessed with
perfect good faith, yet use, however long, will never give the property;
as, for instance, when the possession is of a free person, a thing sacred
or religious, or a fugitive slave.
2. Things stolen, or seized by violence, cannot be acquired by use,
although they have been possessed bona fide during the length of time
above prescribed ; for such acquisition is prohibited, as to things stolen,
by the law of the Twelve Tables, and by the lex Atinia; as to things
seized by violence, by the lex Julia et Plaufia.
3. When it is said that the acquisition by use of things stolen or
seized by violence is prohibited by these laws, it is not meant that the
thief himself, or he who possesses himself of the thing by violence, is
unable to acquire the property, for another reason prevents them,
namely, that their possession is mala fide; but no one else, although he
has in good faith purchased or taken away from them, is able to
acquire the property in use. Whence, as to movables, it does not often
happen that a bona fide possessor gains the property in them by use.
For whenever any one seHs, or makes over for any other reason, a thing
belonging to another, it is a theft.
4. Sometimes, however, it is otherwise; for, if an heir, supposing
a thing lent or let to the deceased, or deposited with him, to be a part
of the inheritance, sells or gives it as a gift or dowry to a person who
receives it bona fide, there is no doubt that the person receiving it may
acquire the property in it by use; for the thing is not tainted with the
vice of theft, as the heir who has bona fide alienated it as his own, has
not been guilty of a theft.
5. So if the usufructuary of a female slave sells or gives away her
child, believing it to be his property, he does not commit theft; for
there is no theft without the intention to commit theft.
6. It may also happen in various other ways, that a man may
transfer a thing belonging to another without committing a theft, so that
the possessor acquires the property in it by use.
7. As to movables, it may more easily happen that a person .may,
INSTITUTIONS 139
without violence, take possession of a place vacant by the absence or
negligence of the owner, or his having died without a successor ; and
although his possession is mala fide, since he knows that he has seized
on land not belonging to him, yet if he transfers it to a person who
receives it bona fide, this person will acquire the property in it by long
possession, as the thing he receives has neither been stolen nor seized
by violence. The opinion of the ancients, who thought that there could
be a theft of a piece of land or a place, is now abandoned, and there
are imperial constitutions which provide that no possessor of an im-
moveable shall be deprived of the benefit of a long and undoubted
possession.
8. Sometimes even a thing stolen or seized by violence may be
acquired by use; for instance, if it has come back into the power of its
owner, for then, the vice being purged, the acquisition by use may
take place.
9. Things belonging to our fiscus cannot be acquired by use.
But Papinian has given his opinion that if, "before bona vacant ia have
been reported to the fiscus, a bona fide purchaser receives any of them,
he can acquire the property by use. And the Emperor Antoninus Pius,
and the Emperors Sevems and Antoninus, have issued rescripts in ac-
cordance with this opinion.
10. Lastly, it is to be observed that a thing must be tainted with
no vice, that the bona fide purchaser or person who possesses it from
any other just cause may acquire it by use.
11. But if a mistake is made as to the cause of possession, and
it is wrongly supposed to be just, there is no usucapion. As, for in-
stance, if any one possesses in the belief that he has bought, when he has
not bought, or that he has received a gift, w"hen no gift has really
been made to him.
12. "Long possesssion, which has begun to reckon in favor of the
deceased, is continued in favor of the heir or bonorum possessor, al-
though he may know that the immoveable belongs to another person ;
but if the deceased .commenced his possession mala fide, the possession
does not profit the "heir or bonorum possessor, although ignorant of this.
And our constitution has enacted the same with respect to usucapions,
in which the benefit of possession is to be in like manner continued.
13. Between the buyer and the seller, too, the Emperors Severus
and Antonius have decided by rescript that their several times of pos-
session shall be reckoned together.
14. It is provided by an edict of the Emperor Marcus, that a
140 INSTITUTIONS
person who has purchased from the fiscus a thing belonging to another
person, may repel the owner of the thing by an exception, if five years
have elapsed since the sale. But a constitution of Zeno of sacral
memory has completely protected those who receive anything from the
fiscus by sale, gift, or any other title, by providing that they themselves
are to be at once secure, and made certain of success, whether they
sue or are themselves sued, in an action. While they who think that
they have a good ground of action as owners or mortgagees of the
things alienated, may bring an action against the sacred treasury within
four years. An imperial constitution, which we ourselves have recently
published, extends to those who have received as a gift anything from
our palace, or that of the empress, the provisions of the constitution
of Zeno relative to the alienations of the fiscus.
X. MAKING WILLS
The word testament is derived from testatio mentis; it testifies the
determination of the mind.
1. That nothing belonging to antiquity may be altogether un-
known, it is necessary to observe, that formerly there were two kinds
of testaments in use : the one was employed in times of peace, and was
named calatic comitiis, the other was employed at the moment of set-
ting out in battle, and was termed procincturn. A third species was
afterwards added, called per ces libram, being effected by mancipation,
that is, an imaginary sale in the presence of five witnesses, and the
libripens, all citizens of Rome, above the age of puberty, together with
him who was called the emptor familioe. The two former kinds of
testaments fell into disuse even in ancient times; and that made per
as et libram also, although it has continued longer in practice, has now
in part ceased to be made use of.
2. These three kinds of testament belonged to the civil law, but
afterwards another kind was introduced by the edict of the praetor. By
the jus honorarium no sale was necessary but the seals of seven wit-
nesses were sufficient. The seals of witnesses were not required by the
civil law.
3. But when the progress of society and the imperial constitu-
tions had produced a fusion of the civil and the praetorian law, it
was established that the testament should be made all at one time, in
the presence of seven witnesses (two points required by the civil
law), with the subscription of the witnesses (a formality introduced by
the constitutions), and with their seals appended, according to the edict
INSTITUTIONS 141
of the praetor. Thus the law of testament seems to have had a triple
origin. The witnesses, and their presence at one continuous time for
the purpose of giving the testament the requisite formality, are derived
from the civil law ; the subscriptions of the testator and witnesses, from
the imperial constitutions ; and the seals of the witnesses and their num-
ber, from the edict of the praetor.
4. To all these formalities we have enacted by our constitution,
as an additional security for the genuineness of testaments, and to pre-
vent fraud, that the name of the heir shall be written in the handwriting
either of the testator or of the witnesses; and that everything shall
be done according to the tenor of that constitution.
5. All the witnesses may seal the testament with the same seal ;
for, as Pomponius says, what if the engraving on all seven seals were
the same ? And a witness may use a seal belonging to another person.
6. Those persons can be witnesses with whom there is testa-
menti factio. But women, persons under the age of puberty, slaves,
madmen, dumb persons, deaf persons, prodigals restrained from having
their property in their power, and persons declared by law to be worth-
less and incompetent to witness, cannot be witnesses.
7. A witness, who was thought to be free at the time of making
the testament, was afterwards discovered to be a slave, and the Em-
peror Hadrian, in his rescript to Catonius Versus, and afterwards the
Emperors Severus and Antoninus by rescript, declared, that they would
aid such a defect in a testament, so that it should be considered as valid
as if made quite regularly ; since, at the time when the testament was
sealed, this witness was commonly considered a free man, and there
was no one to contest his status.
8. A father, a son under his power, or two brothers under the
power of the same father, may be witnesses to the same testament ; for
nothing prevents several persons of the same family being witnesses
in a matter which only concerns a stranger.
9. But no person under power of the testator can be a witness.
And if a filiusfamilias makes a testament giving his castrensc peculium,
after leaving the army, neither his father, nor any one in power of
his father, can be a witness. For, in this case, the law does not allow
the testimony of a member of the same family.
10. No person instituted heir, nor any one in subjection to him,
nor his father, in whose power he is nor his brothers under power of
the same father, can be witnesses ; for the whole business of making a
testament is in the present day considered a transaction between the
142 INSTITUTIONS
testator and the heir. But formerly there was great confusion; for
although the ancients would never admit the testimony of the families
emptor, nor of any one connected with him by the ties of patria potestas,
yet they admitted that of the heir, and of persons connected with him
by the ties of patria potestas, only exhorting them not to abuse their
privilege. We have corrected this, making illegal what they endeavored
to prevent by persuasion. For, in imitation of the old law respecting
the families emptor, we refuse to permit the heir, who now represents
the ancient familioe emptor, or any of those connected with the heir by
the tie of patria potestas, to be, so speak, witness in their own behalf ;
and accordingly we have not suffered the constitutions of preceding
emperors on the subject to be inserted in our code.
11. But we do not refuse the testimony of legatees, or persons
taking fideicommissa, or of persons connected with them, because they
do not suceed to the rights of the deceased. On the contrary, by one
of our constitutions we have specially granted them this privilege ; and
we give it still more readily to persons in their power, and to those in
whose power they are.
12. It is immaterial, whether a testament be written upon a tablet,
upon paper, parchment, or any other substance.
13. Any person may execute any number of duplicates of the
same testament, each, however, being made with prescribed forms.
This may be sometimes necessary ; as, for instance, when a man who
is going a voyage is desirous to carry with him, and also to leave at
home, a memorial of his last wishes ; or for any other of the number-
less reasons that may arise from the various necessities of mankind.
14. Thus much may suffice concerning written testaments. But
if any one wishes to make a testament, valid by the civil law, without
writing, he may do so, in the presence of seven witnesses, he verbally
declares his wishes, and this will be a testament perfectly valid accord-
ing to the civil law, and confirmed by imperial constitutions.
BOOK III.
I. INTESTATE SUCCESSION
A person dies intestate, who either has made no testament at all,
or has made one not legally valid ; or if the testament he has made
is revoked, or made useless ; or if no one becomes heir under it.
i. The inheritances of intestates, by the law of the Twelve Tables,
INSTITUTIONS 143
belong in the first place to the stti hcredcs.
2. And, as we have observed before, those as sui heretics who, at
the death of the deceased, were under his power ; as a son or a daughter,
a grandson or a granddaughtr by a son, a great-grandson or great-
granddaughter by a grandson of a son ; nor does it make any difference
whether these children are natural or adopted. We must also reckon
among them those, who, though not born in lawful wedlock, neverthe-
less, according to the tenor of the imperial constitutions, acquire the
rights of sui hercdcs by being presented to the curia of their cities;
as also those to whom our own constitutions refer, which enact that,
if any person has lived with a woman not originally intending to marry
her, but whom he is not prohibited to marry, and shall have children
by her, and shall afterwards, feeling towards her the affection of a
husband, enter into an act of marriage with her, and have by her sons
or daughters, not only those born after the settlement of the dowry
shall be legitimate, and in the power of the father, but also those born
before, who gave occasion to the legitimacy of the children born after.
And this law shall obtain, although no children are born subsequent to
the making of the act of dowry, or those born are all a great-grandson
or great-granddaughter, is not reckoned the sui hcredcs, unless the
person preceding them in degree has ceased to be under the power of
the decedant, either by death, or some other means, as by emancipation.
For, if a son, when the grandfather died, was under the power of his
father, the grandson cannot be suits heres of his grandfather; and so
with regard to all other descendents. Posthumous children, also, who
would have been under the power of their father, if they had been born
in his lifetime, are sui hcredcs.
3. Sui heredcs may become heirs, without their knowledge, and
even though insane; for in every case in which inheritances may be
acquired without our knowledge, they may also be acquired by the
insane. At the death of the father, ownership in an inheritance is at
once continued ; accordingly, the authority of a tutor is not necessary, as
inheritances may be acquired by sui hercdcs without their knowledge:
neither does an insane person acquire by assent of his curator, but by
operation of law.
4. But sometimes a child becomes a suus heres, although he was
not under power at the death of his parent ; as when a person returns
from captivity after the death of his father. He is then made a suus
heres by the jus postlitninii.
5. On the contrary, it may happen that a child who, at the death
144 INSTITUTIONS
of his parent, was under his power, is not his suus heres: as when a
parent after his decease, is adjudged to have been guilty of treason,
and his memory is thus made infamous. He can then have no suus
heres, as it is the fiscus that succeeds to his estate. In this case it
may be said that there has in law been a suus heres, but that he has
ceased to'be so.
6. A son, or a daughter, and a grandson or granddaughter by
another son, are called equally to the inheritance; nor does the
nearer in degree exclude the more remote; for it seems just that
grandsons and granddaughters should succeed in the place of their
father. For the same reason, a grandson or granddaughter by a son,
and a great-grandson or great-granddaughter by a grandson, are called
together. And since grandsons and granddaughters, great-grandsons
and great-granddaughters, succeed in place of their parent, it appeared
to follow that inheritances should not be divided per capita, but per
stirpes; so that a son should possess one-half, and the grandchildren,
whether two or more, of another son, the other half of the inheritance.
So, where there were grandchildren by two sons, one or two perhaps by
the one, and three or four by the other, the inheritance will belong, half
to the grandchild or the two grandchildren by the one son, and half to
the three or four grandchildren by the other son.
7. When it is asked whether such a person is a suus heres, we
must look to the time at which it was certain that the deceased died
without a testament, including therein the case of the testament being
abandoned. Thus, if a son is disinherited and a stranger is instituted
heir, and after the death of the son it becomes certain that the instituted
heir will not belieir, either because he is unwilling or unable to be so,
in this case the grandson of the deceased becomes the suus heres of
his grandfather ; for, at the time when it was certain that the deceased
died intestate, there exists only the grandchild, and of this there can be
no doubt.
8. And although a child is bom after the death of his grandfather,
yet, if he was conceived in the lifetime of his grandfather, he will, if
his father is dead, and his grandfather's testament abandoned, become
the suus heres vi his grandfather. But a child both conceived and born
after the death of his grandfather, could not become the suus heres,
although his father should die and the testament of his grandfather be
abandoned; because he was never allied to his grandfather by any tie
of relationship. Neither is a person adopted by an emancipated son
to be reckoned among the children of the father of his adoptive father.
INSTITUTIONS 145
And not only are these adoptive children of an emancipated son in-
capable of taking the inheritance as children of the deceased grand-
father, but they cannot demand possession of the goods as the nearest
cognati. Thus much concerning sui heredes.
9. Emancipated children by the civil law have no right to the
inheritance of their father ; being no longer under the power of their
parent, they are not his sui heredes, nor are they called to inherit by
any other right under the law of the Twelve Tables. But the praetor,
obeying natural equity, grants them the possession of goods called unde
liberi, as if they had been under the power of their Bather at the time
of his death, and this, whether they stand alone, or whether there are
also others, who are sui heredes. Thus, when there are two children,
one thus emancipated, and the other under power at his father's death,
the latter, by the civil law, is alone the heir, and alone the suus heres:
but, as the emancipated son, by the indulgence of the praetor, is ad-
mitted to his share, the suus heres becomes heir only of a part.
10. But those, who after emancipation have given themselves in
adoption, are not admitted as children to the possession of the effects
of their natural father, that is, if, at the time of his death, they are
still in their adoptive family. But, if, in the lifetime of their natural
father, they have been emancipated by their adoptive father, they are
then admitted to receive the goods of their natural father exactly as
if they had been emancipated by him, and had never entered into the
adoptive family. Accordingly, with regard to their adoptive father,
they become from that moment strangers to him. But if they are
emancipated by their adoptive father after the death of their natural
father, they are equally considered as strangers to the adoptive father ;
and yet do not gain the position of children with regard to the inherit-
ance of their natural father. This has been so laid down, because it
was unreasonable that it should be in the power of an adopter to de-
termine to whom the inheritance of a natural father should belong,
whether to his children, or to the agnati.
11. The rights of adoptive children are therefore less than those
of natural children, who, even after emancipation, retain the rank of
children by the indulgence of the praetor, although they lose it by
the civil law. But adopted children, when emancipated, lose the
rank of children by the civil law, and are not aided by the praetor.
And the distinction between the two cases is very proper, for the civil
law cannot destroy natural rights ; and children cannot cease to be sons
and daughters, grandsons and granddaughters, because they cease to
14« INSTITUTIONS
be sui heredes. But adopted children, when emancipated, become in-
stantly strangers; for the rights and title of son or daughter, which
they have only obtained by adoption, may be destroyed by another
ceremony of the civil law, that, namely, of emancipation.
12. The same rules are observed in the possession of goods which
the praetor gives contra tabulas to children who have been passed over,
chat is, who have neither been instituted heirs, nor properly disin-
herited. For the praetor calls to this possession of goods those children
under the power of their father at the time of his death, and those
also who are emancipated; but he excludes those who are in an adoptive
family at the decease of their natural father. So, too, adoptive chil-
dren emancipated by their adoptive father, as they are not admitted to
succeed their adoptive father ab intestato, much less are they admitted
to possess the goods of their adoptive father contrary to his testament,
for they cease to be included in the number of his children.
13. It is, however, to be observed that children still remaining
in an adoptive family, or who have been emancipated by their adoptive
father, after the decease of their natural father, who dies intestate,
although not admitted by the part of the edict calling children to the
possession of goods, are admitted by another part, by which the cognati
of the deceased are called. They are, however, only thus admitted in
default of sui heredes, emancipated children, and agnati. For the
praeter first calls the children, both the sui heredes and those emanci-
pated, then the legitimi heredes, and then the cognati.
14. Such were the rules that formerly obtained; but they have
received some emendation from our constitution relating to persons
given in adoption by their natural parents. For cases have occurred in
which sons have lost by adoption their succession to their natural
parents, and, the tie of adoption being easily dissolved be emancipation,
have lost the right of succeeding to either parent. Correcting, there-
fore, as usual, what is wrong, we have promulgated a constitution
enacting that, when a natural father has given his son in adoption,
the rights of the son shall be preserved exactly as if he had still re-
mained in the power of his natural father, and no adoption had taken
place ; except only in this, that the person adopted may succeed to his
adoptive father, if he dies intestate. But, if the adoptive father makes a
testament, the adoptive son can neither by the civil law nor under the
praetorian edict obtain any part of the inheritance, whether he demands
possession of the effects contra tabulas, or alleges that the testament is
inofficious : for an adoptive father is under no obligation to institute or
INSTITUTIONS 147
disinherit his adopted son, there being no natural tie between them, not
even if the adopted son has been chosen among three brothers, ac-
cording to theisenatus-consultum Sabinianum, for even in this case the
son does not obtain the fourth part of his adoptive father's effects, nor
has he any action whereby to claim it. But persons adopted by an ascen-
dant are excepted in our constitution ; for, as natural and civil rights
both concur in their favor, we have thought proper to preserve to this
adoption its effect under the old law, as also to the arrogation of a
patfrfatnilias. But this, in all its details, may be collected from the
tenor of the above-mentioned constitution.
15. The ancient law, favoring descendants from males, called only
grandchildren so descended to the succession as sui hcredcs, in prefer-
ence to the agnati, while grandchilden born of daughters, and great-
grandchildren born of granddaughters, were reckoned among cognati,
and succeeded only aftrr the agnati to their maternal grandfather and
great-grand father, or to their grandmother, or great grandmother, ma-
ternal or paternal. But the emperors would not suffer such a violence
against nature to continue without an adequate alteration ; and, inas-
much as the name of the grandchild and great-grandchild is common,
as well to descendents by females as by males, they gave all the same
right and order of succession. But, that persons whose privileges rested
not only on nature but also on the ancient law, might enjoy some pecu-
liar advantage, they thought it right that the portions of grandchildren,
great-grandchildren, and other lineal descendents of a female, should
be somewhat diminished, so that they should not receive so much by
a third part as their mother or grandmother would have received, or,
when the succession is the inheritance of a woman, as their father or
grandfather, paternal or maternal, would have received; and, al-
though there were no other descendants, if they entered on the inherit-
ance, the emperors did not call the agnati to the succession. And as,
upon the decease of a son, the law of the Twelve Tables calls the grand-
children and great-grandchildren, male and female, to represent their
father in the succession to their grandfather, so the imperial legislation
calls them to take in succession the place of their mother or grand-
mother, subject only to the above-mentioned deduction of a third part.
16. But, as there still remained matter of dispute between the
agnati and the above-mentioned grandchildren, the agnati claiming the
fourth part of the estate of the deceased by virtue of a constitution, we
have rejected this constitution, and have not permitted it to be inserted
into our code from that of Theodosius. And in the constitution we
148 INSTITUTIONS
have ourselves promulgated, we have completely departed from the
provisions of those former constitutions, and have enacted that agnati
shall take no part in the succession of the deceased, when there are
grandchildren born of a daughter, or great-grandchildren born of a
granddaughter, or any other descendants from a female in the direct
line; as those in a collateral line ought not to be preferred to direct
descendants. This constitution is to prevail from the date of its pro-
mulgation in its full force, as we here again enact. And as the old law
ordered, that between the sons of the deceased and his grandsons by a
son, every inheritance should be divided per stirpes, and not per capita,
so we also ordain, that a similar distribution shall be made between
sons and grandsons by a daughter, and between grandsons and grand-
daughters, great-grandsons and great-granddaughters, and all other
descendants in a direct line; so that the children of either branch may
receive the share of their mother or father, their grandmother or
grandfather, without any diminution; and, if of the one branch there
should be one or two children, and of the other branch three or four,
then the one or two shall have one-half, and the three or four the other
half of the inheritance.
XIII. OBLIGATIONS
Let us now pass to obligations. An obligation is a tie of law, which
binds us, according to the rules of our civil law, to render something.
1. The principal division of obligations is into two kinds, civil
and praetorian. Civil obligations are those constituted by the laws, or,
at least, recognized by the civil law. Praetorian obligations are those
which a praetor has established by his own authority; they are also
called honorary.
2. A further division separates them into four kinds, for they
arise ex contracts or quasi ex contracts, ex maleficio or quasi ex male-
ficio. Let us first treat of those which arise from a contract; which
again are divided into four kinds, according as they are formed by the
thing, by word of mouth, by writing, or by consent. Let us examine
each kind separately.
XIV. QUIBUS MODIS RE CONTRAHITUR OBLIGATIO
An obligation may be contracted by the thing, as, for example,
by giving a mutuutn. This always consists of things which may be
weighed, numbered, or measured, as wine, oil, corn, coin, brass, silver,
or gold. In giving these things by number, measure or weight, we do
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so that they may become the property of those who receive them. The
identical things lent are not returned, but only others of the same nature
and quality; and hence the term mutuum, because, what I give from
being mine becomes yours. From this contract arises the action termed
condictio.
1. A person, also, who receives a payment which is not due to
him, and which is made by mistake, is bound re, i. e. by the thing ; and
the plaintiff may have against him an actio condictitia to recover what
he has paid. For the condictio 'Si paret eum dare oportere,' may be
brought "against him, exactly as if he had received a mutuum. Thus a
pupil, to whom a payment has been made by mistake without the author-
ization of his tutor, is not subject to a condictio indebitti, any more than
he would be by the gift of a mutuum. This species of obligation, how-
ever, does not seem to arise from a contract, since he, who gives in
order to acquit himself of something due from him, intends rather to
dissolve than to make a contract.
2. A person, too, to whom a thing is given as a commodatum, i. e.
is given that he may make use of it, is bound re, and is subject to the
actio commodati. But there is a wide difference between him and a
person who has received a mutuum; for the thing is not given him .that
it may become his property, and he therefore is bound to restore the
identical'thing he received. And, again, he who has received a mutuum,
if by any accident, as fire, the fall of a building, shipwreck, Hie attack
of thieves or enemies, he loses what he received, still remains bound.
But he who has received a thing lent for his use, is indeed bound to
employ his utmost diligence in keeping and preserving it ; nor will it
suffice that he should take the same care of it, which he was accustomed
to take of his own property, if it appear that a more careful person
might have preserved it in safety; but he has not to answer for loss
occasioned by superior force, or extraordinary accident, provided the
accident is not due to any fault of his. If, however, you take with you
on a journey the thing lent you to make use of, and you lose it by the
attack of enemies or robbers, or by shipwreck, you are undoubtedly
bound to restore it. A thing is properly said to be commodatum, when
you are permitted to enjoy the use of it, without any recompense being
given or agreed on ; for, if there is any recompense, the contract is that
of locatio, as a thing, to be a commodatum, must be lent gratuitously.
3. A person with whom a thing is deposited, is bound re, and is
subject to the actio def>ositi, and must give back the identical thing
which he received. But he is only answerable if he is guilty of fraud,
150 INSTITUTIONS
and not for a mere fault, such as carelessness or negligence; and he
cannot, therefore, be called to account if the thing deposited, being care-
lessly kept, is stolen. For he who commits his property to the care of a
negligent friend, should impute the loss to his own want of caution.
4. A creditor, also, who has received a pledge, is bound re, for he
is obliged to restore the thing he has received, by the actio pigneratitia.
But, inasmuch as a pledge is given for the benefit of both parties, of
the debtor that he may borrow more easily, and of the creditor that
repayment may be better secured, it has been decided that it will suffice
if the creditor employs his utmost diligence in keeping the thing
pledged ; if, notwithstanding this care, it is lost by some accident, the
creditor is not accountable for it, and he is not prohibited from suing
ior his debt.
XV. VERBAL OBLIGATIONS
An obligation by word of mouth is contracted by means of a ques-
tion and an answer, when we stipulate that anything shall be given to,
or done for us. It gives rise to two actions — the conditio, when the
stipulation is certain, and the actio ex stipulatu, when it is uncertain.
The term stipulation is derived from stipulum, a word employed by the
ancients to mean 'firm,' and coming perhaps from stipes, the trunk of a
tree.
1. Formerly the words used in making this kind of contract were
as follows — Spondesf do you engage^yourself ? Spondeo, I do engage
myself. Promittis? do you promise? Promitto, I do promise. Fide-
promittis? do you promise on your good faith? Fidepromitto, I do
promise on my good faith. Fidejubes? do you make yourself fidejus-
sorf Fidejubeo, I do make myself fidejussor. Dabisf will you give?
Dabo, I will give. Fades? will you do? Faciam, I will do. And it is
immaterial whether the stipulation is in Latin or in Greek, or in any
other language, so that the parties understand it ; nor is it necessary that
the same language should be used by each person, but it is sufficient
if the answer agree with the question. So two Greeks may contract in
Latin. Anciently indeed it was necessary to use the solemn words just
mentioned, but the constitution of the Emperor Leo was afterwards
enacted, which makes unnecessary this solemnity of the expressions,
and only requires the apprehension and consent of each party, in what-
ever words it may be expressed.
2. Every stipulation is made simply, or with the introduction of a
particular time, or conditionally. Simply, as, 'Do you engage to»give
INSTITUTIONS 151
five aurcif in this case the money may be instantly demanded. With
the introduction of a particular time, as when a day is mentioned on
which the money is to be paid, as, 'Do you engage to give me aurei on
the first of the calends of March ?' That which we stipulate to give at a
particular time becomes immediately due, but cannot be demanded be-
fore the day arrives, nor can it even be demanded on that day, for the
whole of the day is allowed to the debtor for payment, as it is never
certain that payment has not been made on the day appointed until that
day is at an end.
3. But, if you stipulate thus, 'Do you engage to give me ten aurei
annually, as long as I live?' the obligation is understood to be made
simply, and is perpetual ; for a debt cannot be due for a time only ; but
the heir, if he demands payment, will be repelled by the exccptio pacti.
4. A stipulation is made conditionally, when the obligation is
made subject to the happening of some uncertain event, so that it takes
effect if such a thing happens, or does not happen, as, for instance, 'Do
you engage to give five aurei, if Titius is made consul ?' Such a stipula-
tion as 'Do you engage to give five aurei if I do not go up to the Capi-
tol?' is in effect the same as if the stipulation had been, that five aurei
should be given to the stipulator at the time of his death. From a con-
ditional stipulation, there arises only a hope that the thing will become
due ; and this hope we transmit to our heirs, if we die before the condi-
tion is accomplished.
5. It is customary to insert a particular place in a stipulation, as,
for instance, 'Do you engage to give me at Carthage?' and this stipula-
tion, although it appear to be made simply, yet necessarily implies a
delay sufficient to enable the person who promises to pay the money
at Carthage. And therefore, if any one at Rome stipulates thus, 'Do
you engage to give to me this day at Carthage ?' the stipulation is use-
less, because the thing promised is impossible.
6. Conditions, which relate to time present or past, either instantly
make the obligation void, or do not suspend it in any way; as, for
instance, 'If Titius has been consul, or if Maevius is alive, do you engage
to give me?' If the thing mentioned is not really the case, the stipula-
tion is void ; if it is the case, the stipulation is immediately valid. Things
certain, if regarded in themselves, although uncertain as far as our
knowledge is concerned, do not delay the formation of the obligation.
7. Not only things, but acts, may be the subject of a stipulation :
as when we stipulate, that something shall, or shall not, be done. And,
in these stipulations, it will be best to subjoin a penalty, lest the amount
152 INSTITUTIONS
included in the stipulation should be uncertain, and the plaintiff should
therefore be obliged to prove how great his interest is. Therefore, if
any one stipulates, that something shall be done, a penalty ought to be^
added as thus: 'If the thing is not done, do you engage to give ten
aurei by way of penalty ?' But, if by one single question a stipulation
is made, that some things shall be done, and that other things shall not
be done, there ought to be added some such clause as this : 'If anything
is done contrary to what is agreed on, or anything agreed on is not
done, then do you engage to give ten aurei by way of penalty ?'
XVI. OBLIGATION BY CONSENT
Obligations are formed by the mere consent of the parties in the
contracts of sale, of letting to hire, of partnership, and of mandate. An
obligation is, in these cases, said to be made by the mere consent of the
parties, because there is no necessity for any writing, nor even for the
presence of the parties: nor is it requisite that anything should be
given to make the contract binding, but the mere consent of those be-
tween whom the transaction is carried on suffices. Thus these contracts
may be entered into by those who are at a distance from each other by
means of letters, for instance, or of messengers. In these contracts each
party is bound to the other to render him all that equity demands, while
in verbal obligations one party stipulates and the other promises.
XVII. BUYING AND SELLING
The contract of sale is formed as soon as the price is agreed upon,
although it has not yet been paid, nor even an earnest given ; for what
is given as an earnest only serves as proof that the contract has been
made. This must be understood of sales made without writing; for
with regard to these we have made no alteration in the law. But, where
there is a written contract, we have enacted that a sale is not to be con-
sidered completed unless an instrument of sale has been drawn up, being
either written by the contracting parties, or at least signed by them, if
written by others ; or if drawn up by a tabellio, it must be formally com-
plete and finished throughout ; for as long as anything is wanting, there
is room to retreat, and either the buyer or seller may retreat, without
suffering loss ; that is, if no earnest has been given. If earnest has been
given, then, whether the contract was written or unwritten, the pur-
chaser, if he refuses to fulfill it, loses what he has given as earnest, and
the seller, if he refuses, has to restore double ; although no agreement
on the subject of the earnest was expressly made. .
INSTITUTIONS 163
1. It is necessary that a price should be agreed upon, for there can
be no sale without a price. And the price must be fixed and certain.
If the parties agree that the thing shall be sold at the sum at which
Titius shall value it, it was a question much debated among the ancients,
whether in such a case there is a sale or not. We have decided, that
when a sale is made for a price to be fixed by a third person, the con-
tract shall be binding under this condition — that if this third person
does fix a price, the price to be paid shall be determined by that which
he fixes, and that according to his decision the thing shall be delivered
and the sale perfected. But if he will not or cannot fix a price, the sale
is then void, as being made without any price being fixed on. This deci-
sion, which we have adopted with respect to sales, may reasonably be
made to apply to contracts of letting to hire.
2. The price should consist in a sum of money. It has been much
doubted whether it can consist in anything else, as in a slave, a piece of
land, or a toga. Sabinus and Cassius thought that it could. And it is
thus that it is commonly said that exchange is a sale, and that this form
of sale is the most ancient. The testimony of Homer was quoted, who
says that part of the army of the Greeks procured wine by an exchange
of certain things. The passage is this : —
'The long-haired Achaeans procured wine, some by giving copper,
others by giving shining steel, others by giving hides, others by giving
oxen, others by giving slaves.'
The authors of the opposite school were of a contrary opinion:
they thought that exchange was one thing and sale another, otherwise,
in an exchange, it would be imposible to say which was the thing sold,
and which the thing given as the price ; for it was contrary to reason to
consider each thing as at once sold, and given as the price. The opinion
of Proculus, who maintained that exchange is a particular kind of con-
tract distinct from sale, has deservedly prevailed, as it is supported by
other lines from Homer, and by still more weighty reasons adopted by
preceding emperors : it has been fully treated of in our Digests.
3. As soon as the sale is contracted, that is, in the case of a sale
made without writing, when the parties have agreed on the price, all
risk attaching to the thing sold falls upon the purchaser, although the
thing has not yet been delivered to him. Therefore, if the slave dies or
receives an injury in any part of the body, or a whole or a portion of
the house is burnt, or a whole or a portion of the land is carried by the
force of a flood, or is diminished or deteriorated by an inundation, or
by a tempest making havoc with the trees, the loss falls on the pur-
V 3-10
154 INSTITUTIONS
chaser, and although he does not receive the thing, he is obliged to pay
the price, for the seller does not suffer for anything which happens
without any design or fault of his. On the other hand, if after the sale
the land is increased by alluvion, it is the purchaser who receives the ad-
vantage, for he who bears the risk of harm ought to receive the benefit
of all that is advantageous. If a slave who has been sold runs away or
is stolen, without any fraud or fault on the part of the seller, we must
inquire whether the seller undertook to keep him safely until he was de-
livered over ; if he undertook this, what happens is at his risk ; if he did
not undertake it, he is not responsible. The same would hold in the
case of any other animal or any other thing, but the seller is in any case
bound to make over to the purchaser his right to a real or personal
action, for the person who has not delivered the thing is still its owner ;
and it is the same with regard to the action of theft, and the action
damni injurice.
4. A sale may be made conditionally or unconditionally; condi-
tionally, as, for example, 'If Stichus suits you within a certain time, he
shall be purchased by you as such a price.'
5. A sale is void when a person knowingly purchases a sacred or
religious place, or a public place, such as a forum or basilica. If, how-
ever, deceived by the vendor, he has supposed that what he was buying
was profane or private, as he cannot have what he purchased, he may
bring an action ex empto to recover whatever it would have been worth
to him not to have been deceived. It is the same if he has purchased a
free man, supposing him to be a slave.
BOOK IV.
I. DE OBLIGATIONIBUS QUJR EX DELICTO NASCUNTUR
As we have treated in the preceding book of obligations arising ex
contractu and quasi ex contractu, we have now to treat of obligations
arising ex maleficio. Of the obligations treated of in the last book,
there were, as we have said, four kinds ; of those we are now to treat of,
there is but one kind, for they all arise from the thing, that is, from the
delict, as, for example, from theft, from robbery, or damage, or injury.
1. Theft is the fraudulent dealing with a thing itself, with its use,
or its possession; an act which is prohibited by natural law.
2. The word furtum comes either from furvum, which means
"black," because it is committed secretly, and often in the night ; or from
INSTITUTIONS 155
fraus; or from fcrrc, that is 'taking away,' or from the Greek word phor
meaning a thief, which again comes from phcrin, to carry away.
3. Of theft there are two kinds, theft manifest and theft not mani-
fest ; for the thefts termed conccptum and oblatum are rather kinds of
actions attaching to theft than kinds of theft, as will appear below. A
manifest theft is one whom the Greek term ep' autophors, being not only
one taken in the fact, but also one taken in the place where the theft is
committed ; as, for example, before he has passed through the door of
the house where he has committed a theft, or in a plantation of olives,
or a vineyard where he has been stealing. We must also extend mani-
fest theft to the case of a thief seen or seized by the owner or any one
else in a public or private place, while still holding the thing he has
stolen, before he has reached the place where he meant to take and de-
posit it. But if he once reaches his destination, although he is after-
wards taken with the thing stolen on him, he is not a manifest thief.
What we mean by a not manifest thief may be gathered from what we
have said, for a theft which is not a manifest theft is a not manifest
theft.
4. There is what is termed conceptum furtum, when a thing stolen
has been sought and found in the presence of witnesses in any one's
house ; for although this person may not be the actual thief, he is liable
to a special action termed conccpti. There is what is termed furtum
oblatum, if a thing stolen has been placed in your hands and then seized
in your house ; that is, if the person who placed it in yours hands did so,
that it might be found rather in your house than in his. For you, in
whose house it had been seized, would have against him who placed it in
your hands, although he were not the actual thief, a special action
termed oblati. There is also the action prohibiti furti against a person
who prevents another who wishes to seek in the presence of witnesses
for a thing stolen ; there is, too, by means of the action furti non cxhibiti,
a penalty provided by the edict of the praetor against a person who has
not produced a thing stolen which has been searched for and found in
his possession. But these actions, concepti, oblati, furti, prohibiti, and
furti non exhibiti, have fallen into disuse ; for search for things stolen
is not now made according to the ancient practice, and therefore these
actions have naturally ceased to be in use, as all who knowingly have
received and concealed a thing stolen are liable to the action furti nee
manifest*.
5. The penalty for manifest theft is quadruple the value of the
150 INSTITUTIONS
thing stolen, whether the thief be a slave or a freeman ; that for theft not
manifest is double.
6. It is theft, not only when any one takes away a thing belonging
to another, in order to appropriate it, but generally when any one deals
with the property of another contrary to the wishes of its owner. Thus,
if the creditor uses the thing pledged or the depository the thing depos-
ited, or the usuary employs the thing for another purpose than that for
which it is given, it is a theft ; for example, if any one borrows plate on
the pretense of intending to invite friends to supper, and then carries
it away with him to a distance, or if any one borrows a horse, as for a
ride, and takes it much farther than suits such a purpose, or, as we find
supposed in the writings of the ancients, takes it into battle.
7. A person, however, who borrows a thing, and applies it to a
purpose other than that for which it was lent, only commits theft, if he
knows that he is acting against the wishes of the owner, and that the
owner, if he were informed, would not permit it ; for if he really thinks
the owner would permit it, he does not commit a crime ; and this is a
very proper distinction, for there is no theft without the intention to
commit theft.
8. And even if the borrower thinks he is applying the thing bor-
rowed contrary to the wishes of the owner, yet if the owner as a matter
of fact approves of the application, there is, it is said, no theft. Whence
the following question arises : Titius has urged the slave of Maevius to
steal from his master certain things, and to bring them to him; the
slave informs his master, who, wishing to seize Titius in the act, per-
mits his slave to take certain things to Titius; is Titius liable to an
action furti, or to one servi corrupti, or to neither? This doubtful
question was submitted to us, and we examined the conflicting opin-
ions of the ancient jurists on the subject, some of whom thought Titius
was liable to both these actions, while others thought he was only liable
to the action of theft ; and to prevent subtleties, we have decided that
in this case both these actions may be brought. For, although the slave
has not been corrupted, and the case does not seem therefore within the
rules of the action servi corrupti, yet the intention to corrupt the slave
is indisputable, and he is therefore to be punished exactly as if the
slave had been really corrupted, lest his impunity should incite others to
act in the same criminal way towards a slave more easy to corrupt.
9. Sometimes there may be a theft of free persons, as, if one of
our children in our power is carried away.
10. A man may even commit a theft of his own property, as, if a
INSTITUTIONS 157
debtor takes from a creditor a thing he has pledged to him.
11. A person may be liable to an action of theft, although he has
not himself committed a theft, as for instance, a person who has lent his
aid and planned the crime. Among such is one who makes your money
fall from your hand that another may seize upon it ; or has placed him-
self in your way that another may carry off something belonging to you ;
or has driven your sheep or oxen that another may make away with
them, or, to take an instance given by the old lawyers, frightens the
herd with a piece of scarlet cloth. But if such acts are only the fruits
of reckless folly, with no design of assisting in the commission of a
theft, the proper action is one in factum. But if Maevius assists Titius
to commit a robbery, both are liable to an action of theft. A person,
again, assists in a theft who places ladders under a window, or breaks
a window or a door, that another may commit a theft ; or who lends
tools to break a door, or ladders to place under a window, knowing the
purpose to which they are to be applied. But a person who does not
actually assist, but only advises and urges the commission of a theft,
is not liable to an action of theft.
12. Those who are in the power of a parent or master, if they
steal anything belonging to the person in whose power they are, commit
a theft. The thing stolen, in such a case, is considered to be furtiva, and
therefore no right in it can be acquired by usucapion before it has re-
turned into the hands of the owner; but no action of theft can be
brought, because the relation of the parties is such that no action what-
ever can arise between them. But if the theft has been committed by
the assitance and advice of another, as a theft is actually committed,
this person will be subject to the action of theft as a theft is undoubtedly
committed through his means.
13. An action may be brought by any one who is interested in the
safety of the thing, although he is not the owner ; and the proprietor,
consequently, cannot bring this action unless he is interested in the thing
not perishing.
14. Hence, a creditor may bring this action if a thing pledged to
him is stolen, although his debtor is solvent, because it may be more ad-
vantageous to him to rely upon his pledge than to bring an action
against his debtor personally ; so much so, that although it is the debtor
himself that has stolen the thing pledged, yet the creditor can bring
an action of theft.
15. So, too, if a fuller receives clothes to clean, or a tailor receives
them to mend for a certain fixed sum, and has them stolen from him, it
158 INSTITUTIONS
is he and not the owner who is able to bring an action of theft,
for the owner is not considered as interested in their safety, having an
action locati, by which he may recover the thing stolen, against the fuller
or tailor. But if a thing is stolen from a bona fide purchaser, he is en-
titled, like a creditor, to an action of theft, although he is not the pro-
prietor. But an action of theft is not maintainable by the fuller or
tailor, unless he is solvent, that is, unless he is able to pay the owner the
value of the thing lost ; for if the fuller or tailor is insolvent, then the
owner, as he cannot recover anything from them, is allowed to bring an
action of theft, as he has in this case an interest in the safety of the
thing. And it is the same although the fuller or tailor is partially sol-
vent.
16. What we have said of the fuller and tailor as applied by the
ancients to the borrower. For as the fuller by accepting a sum for his
labor makes himself answerable for the safe keeping of the thing, so
does a borrower by accepting the use of the thing he borrows. But our
wisdom has introduced in our decisions an improvement on this point,
and the owner may now bring an action commodati against the bor-
rower, or of theft against the thief ; but when once his choice is made,
he cannot change his mind and have recourse to the other action. If he
elects to sue the thief, the borrower is quite freed ; if he elects to sue
the borrower, he cannot bring an action of theft against the thief, but
the borrower may, that is, provided that the owner elects to sue the bor-
rower knowing that the thing has been stolen. If he is ignorant or un-
certain of this, and therefore sues the borrower, and then subsequently
learns the true state of the case, and wishes to have recourse to an ac-
tion of theft, he will be permitted to sue the thief without any difficulty
being thrown in his way, for it was in ignorance of the real fact that he
sued the borrower ; unless, indeed, his claim has been satisfied by the
borrower, for then the thief is quite free from any action of theft on
the part of the owner, but the borrower takes the place of the owner
in the power of bringing this action. On the other hand, it is very evi-
dent that if the owner originally brings an action commodati, in ignor-
ance that the thing has been stolen, and afterwards learning this, prefers
to proceed against the real thief, the borrower is thereby entirely freed,
whatever may be the issue of the suit against the thief ; as in the pre-
vious case, the thief would be freed as against the lender, whether the
borrower was wholly or only partially able to satisfy the claim against
him.
17. A depository is not answerable for the safe keeping of the
INSTITUTIONS 150
thing deposited, but is only answerable for wilful wrong; therefore, if
the thing is stolen from him, as he is not bound by the contract of
deposit to restore it, and has no interest in its safety, he cannot bring
an action of theft, but it is the owner alone who can bring this action.
18. It should be observed, that the question has been asked
whether, if a person under the age of puberty takes away the property
of another, he commits a theft. The answer is that it is the intention
that makes the theft, such a person is only bound by the obligation
springing from the delict if he is near the age of puberty, and conse-
quently understands that he commits a crime.
19. The action of theft, whether brought to recover double or
quadruple, has no other object than the recovery of the penalty. For the
owner has also a means of recovering the thing itself, either by a inn-
dicatio or a condictio. The former may be brought against the pos-
sessor, whether the thief or any one else; the latter may be brought
against the thief or the heir of the thief, although not in possession of
the thing stolen.
II. GOODS TAKEN BY FORCE
A person who takes a thing belonging to another by force is liable
to an action of theft, for who can be said to take the property of an-
other more against his will than he who takes it by force? And he is
therefore rightly said to be an improbus fur. The praetor, however, has
introduced a peculiar action in this case, called vi bonorum raptorum;
by which, if brought within a year after the robbery, quadruple the value
of the thing taken may be recovered; but if brought after the expira-
tion of a year, then the single value only may be brought even against
a person who has only taken by force a single thing, and one of the
most trifling value. But this quadruple of the value is not altogether
a penalty, as in the action of furtum tnanifestum; for the thing itself
is included, so that, strictly, the penalty is only three times the value.
And it is the same, whether the robber was or was not taken in the
actual commission of the crime. For it would be ridiculous that a
person who uses force should be in a better condition than he who se-
cretly commits a theft.
i. As, however, this action can only be brought against a person
who robs with the intention of committing a wilful wrong, if any one
takes by force a thing, thinking himself, by a mistake, to be the owner,
and, in ignorance of the law, believing it permitted an owner to take
away, even by force, a thing belonging to himself from persons in
100 INSTITUTIONS
whose possession it is, he ought to be held discharged of this action,
nor in such a case would be liable to an action of theft. But lest rob-
bers, under cover of such an excuse, should find means of gratifying
their avarice with impunity, the imperial constitutions have made a
wise alteration, by providing that no one may carry off by force a thing
that is moveable, or moves itself, although he thinks himself the owner.
If any one acts contrary to these constitutions, he is, if the thing is his,
to cease to be owner of it ; if it is not, he is not only to restore the
thing taken, but also to pay its value. The constitutions have declared
these rules applicable, not only in the case of moveables of a nature to
be carried off by force, but also to the forcible entries made upon im-
moveables, in order that every kind of violent robbery may be pre-
vented.
2. In this action it is not necessary that the thing should have
been a part of the goods of the plaintiff ; for whether it has been a part
of 'his goods or not, yet if it has "b'een taken from among his goods,
the action may be brought. Consequently, if anything has been let,
lent or given in pledge to Titius, or deposited with him, so that he
has an interest in its not being taken away by force, as, for instance,
he has engaged to be answerable for any fault committed respecting it ;
or if he possesses it bona fide, or has the usufruct of it, or has any other
legal interest in its .not being taken away by force, this action may be
brought, not to give him the ownership in the thing, but merely to
restore him what he has lost by the thing being taken away from out of
his goods, that is, from out of his property. And generally, we may
say, that the same causes which would give rise to an action of theft,
if the theft is committed secretly, will give rise to this action, if it is
committed with force.
III. DE LEGE AQUILIA
The action damni injurix is established by the lex Aquilia, of
which the first head privides, that if any one shall have wrongfully
killed a slave, or a four-footed beast, being one of those reckoned
among cattle, belonging to another, he shall be condemned to pay thft
owner the greatest value which the thing has possessed at any time
within a year previous.
i. As the law does not speak generally of four-footed beasts, but
only of those which are reckoned among cattle, we may consider its
provision as not applying to dogs or wild animals, but only to animals
•which may be properly said to feed in herds, as horses, mules, Basses,
INSTITUTIONS 161
sheep, oxen, goats, and also swine, for they are included in the term
cattle, for they feed in herds. Thus Homer says, as -.Elius Marcianus
quotes in his Institutes:
"You will find him seated by his swine, and they are feeding by the
rock of Corax, near the spring Arethusa."
2. To kill wrongfully is to kill without any right : consequently, a
person who kills a thief is not liable to this action, that is, if he could
not otherwise avoid the danger with which he was threatened.
3. Nor is a person made liable by this law, who has killed by
accident, provided -there is no fault on his part, for this law punishes
fault as well as wilful wrong-doing.
4. Consequently, if any one playing or practicing with a javelin,
pierces with it your slave as he goes by, there is a distinction made ; if
the accident befalls a soldier while in the camp, or other places appro-
priated to military exercises, there is no fault in the soldier, but there
would be in any one else besides a soldier, and the soldier himself would
be in fault if he inflicted such an injury in any other place than one
appropriated to military exercises.
5. If, again, any one, in pruning a tree, by letting a bough fall,
kills your slave who is passing, and this takes place near a public way,
or a way belonging to a neighbor, and he has not cried out to make
persons take care, he is in fault; but if he has called out, and the
passer-by would not take care, he is not to blame. He is also equally
free from blame if he was cutting far from any public way, or in the
middle of a field, even though he has not called out, for by such a place
no stranger has a right to pass.
6. So, again, a physician who has performed an operation on your
slave, and then neglected to attend to his cure, so that the slave dies, is
guilty of a fault.
7. Unskilfulness is also a fault, as, if a physician kills your slave
by unskilfully performing an operation on him, or by giving him wrong
medicines.
8. So, too, if a muleteer, through his want of skill, cannot manage
his mules, and runs over your slave, he is guilty of a fault. As, also,
he would be if he could not hold them on account of his weakness, pro-
vided that a stronger man could have held them in. The same de-
cisions apply to an unskilful or infirm horseman, unable to manage his
horse.
9. The words above quoted, "the greatest value the thing has
possessed at any time within a year previously," mean that if your
162 INSTITUTIONS
slave is killed, being at the time of his death lame, maimed, or one-
eyed, but having been within a year quite sound and of considerable
value, the person who kills him is bound to pay, not his actual value,
but the greatest value he ever possessed within the year. Hence, this
action may be said to be penal, as a person is bound under it not only for
the damage he has done, but for much more ; and, therefore, the action
does not pass against his heir, as it would have done if the condemna-
tion had not exceeded the amount of the actual damage.
10. It has been decided not by virtue of the actual wording of
the law, but by interpretation, that not only is the value of the thing
perishing to be estimated as we have said, but also the loss which in
any way we incur by its perishing; as, for instance, if your slave hav-
ing been instituted heir by some one, is killed before he enters at your
command on the inheritance, the loss of the inheritance should be taken
account of. So, too, if one pair of mules, or a set of four horses, or
one slave of a band of comedians, is killed, account is to be taken not
only of the value of the thing killed, but also of the diminished value
of what remains.
11. The master of a slave who is killed may bring a private action
for the damages given by the lex Aquilia, and also bring a capital action
against the murderer.
12. The second head of the lex Aquilia is not now in use.
13. The third head provides for every kind of damage ; and there-
fore, if a slave, or a four-footed beast, of those reckoned among cattle,
is wounded, or a four-footed beast of those not reckoned among cattle,
as a dog or wild beast, is wounded or killed, an action may be brought
under the third head. Compensation may also be obtained under it
for all wrongful injury to animals or inanimate things, and, in fact, for
anything burnt, broken, or fractured, although the word broken (rup-
tum) would have sufficed for all these cases ; for a thing is ruptum
which in any way is spoilt (corruptum), so that not only things frac-
tured or burnt, but also things cut, bruised, split, or in any way des-
troyed or deteriorated, may be said to be rupta. It has also been decided
that any one who mixes anything with the oil or wine of another, so
as to spoil the goodness of the wine or oil, is liable under this head of
the lex Aquilia.
14. It is evident that, as a person is liable under the first head,
if by wilful injury or by his fault he kills a slave or a four-footed beast,
so by this head, a person is liable for every other damage, if there is
wrongful injury or fault in what he does. But in this case the offender
INSTITUTIONS 163
is bound to pay the greatest value the thing has possessed, not within the
year next preceding, but the thirty days next preceding.
15. Even the word plurimi, i. e., of the greatest value, is not ex-
pressed in this case. But Sabinus was rightly of opinion, that the esti-
mation ought to be made as if this word was in the law, since it must
have been that the plebeians, who were the authors of this law on the
motion of the tribune Aquilius, thought it sufficient to have used the
word in the first head of the law.
16. But the direct action.under this law cannot be brought if any
one has, with his own body, done damage, and consequently utiles ac-
tiones are given against the person who does damage in any other way,
as, for instance, a titilis actio is given against one who shuts up a slave
or a beast, so as to produce death by hunger ; who drives a horse so
fast as to knock him to pieces, or drives cattle over a precipice, or per-
suades another man's slave to climb a tree, or go down in a well, and
the slave in climbing or descending is killed or maimed. But if any
one has flung the slave of another from a bridge or a bank into a river,
and the slave is drowned, then, as he has actually flung him down, there
can be no difficulty in deciding that he has caused the damage with his
own body, and consequently he is directly liable under the lex Aquilia.
But if no damage has been done by the body, nor to the body, but dam-
age has been done in some other way, the actio directa and the actio
utilis are both inapplicable, and an actio in factum is given against the
wrong-doer; for instance, if any one through compassion has loosed
the fetters of a slave, to enable him to escape.
IV. INJURIES
Injuria, in its general sense, signifies every action contrary to law;
in a special sense, it means, sometimes, the same as contumclia (out-
rage)* which is derived from contemnere, the Greek ubris; some-
times the same as culpa (fault), in Greek adikama as in the lex Aquilia,
which speaks of damage done injuria; sometimes it has the sense of
iniquity, injustice, or in Greek adikia; for a person against whom
the praetor or judge pronounces an unjust sentence, is said to have
received an injuria.
I. An injury is committed not only by striking with the fists, or
striking with clubs or the lash, but also by shouting till a crowd gath-
ers round any one ; by taking possession of any one's goods, pretending
that he is a debtor to the inflictor of the injury, who knows he has
no claim on him ; by writing, composing, publishing a libel or defama-
164 INSTITUTIONS
tory verses against any one, or by maliciously contriving that another
does any of these things; by following after an honest woman, or a
young boy or girl; by attempting the chastity of any one; and in
short, by numberless other acts.
2. A man may receive an injury, not only in his own person, but
in that of his children in his power, and even in that of his wife, accord-
ing to the opinion that has prevailed. If, therefore, you injure a daugh-
ter in the power of her father, and married to Titius, the action for the
injury may be brought, not only in the name of the daughter herself,
but also in that of the father or husband. But, if a husband has sus-
tained an injury, the wife cannot bring the actio injurarium, for the
husband is the protector of the wife, not the wife of the husband.
The father-in-law may also bring this action in the name of his
daughter-in-law, if her husband is in his power.
3. An injury cannot, properly speaking, be done to a slave, but it
is the master who, through the slave, is considered to be injured ; not,
however, in the same way as through a child or wife, but only when
the act is of a character grave enough to make it a manifest insult to
the master, as if a person has flogged severely the slave of another, in
which case this action is given against him. But a master cannot bring
an action against a person who has collected a crowd round his slave,
or struck him with his fist.
4. If an injury has been done to a slave held in common, equity
demands that it shall be estimated not according to their respective
shares in him, but according to their respective position, for it is the
masters who are injured.
5. If Titius has the usufruct, and Maevius the property in a slave,
the injury is considered to be done rather to Maevius than to Titius.
6. If the injury has been done to a freeman, who serves you bona
fide, you have no action, but he can bring an action in his own name,
unless he has been injured merely to insult you, for, in that case, you
may bring the actio injuriarium. So, too, with regard to a slave of
another who serves you bona fide, you may bring this action whenever
the slave is injured for the purpose of insulting you.
7. The penalty for injuries under the law of the Twelve Tables
was a limb for a limb, but if only a bone was fractured, pecuniary com-
pensation was exacted proportionate to the great poverty of the times.
Afterwards, the praetor permitted the injured parties themselves to
estimate the injury, so that the judge should condemn the defendants
to pay the sum estimated, or less, as he may think proper. The penalty
INSTITUTIONS 166
appointed by the Twelve Tables has fallen in desuetude, but that intro-
duced by the praetors, and termed honorary, is adopted in the adminis-
tration of justice. For, according to the rank and character of the
person injured, the estimate is greater or less; and a similar gradation
is observed, not improperly, even with regard to a slave, one amount
being paid in the case of a slave who is a steward, a second in that of a
slave holding an office of the intermediate class, and a third in that of
one of the lowest rank, or one condemned to wear fetters.
8. The lex Cornelia also speaks of injuries, and introduced an
actio injuriarum, which may be brought when any one alleges that he
has been struck or beaten, or that his house has been broken into.
And the term "his house" includes one which belongs to him and in
which he lives, or one he hires, or one in which he is received gratu-
itously or as a guest.
9. An injury is said to be of a grave character, either from the
nature of the act, as if any one is wounded or beaten with clubs by
another, or from the nature of the place, as when an injury is done in
a theater, a forum, or in the presence of the praetor ; sometimes from the
quality of the person, as when it is a magistrate that has received the
injury, or a senator has sustained it at the hands of a person of low
condition, or a parent or patron at the hands of a child or freedman.
For the injury done to a senator a parent or a patron is estimated differ-
ently from an injury done to a person of low condition or to a stranger.
Sometimes it is the part of the body injured that gives the character to
the injury as if any one had been struck in the eye. Nor does it make
any difference whether such an injury has been done to a paterfamilias
or a filius families, it being in either case considered of a grave char-
acter.
10. Lastly, it must be observed, that in every case of injury he
who has received it may bring either a criminal or a civil action. In
the latter, it is a sum estimated, as we have said, that constitutes the
penalty ; in the former, the judge, in the exercise of his duty, inflicts on
the offender an extraordinary punishment. We must, however, re-
mark, that a constitution of Zeno permits men of the rank of illustris, or
or any higher rank, to bring or defend the actio injuriarum if brought
criminally by a procurator, as may be seen more clearly by reading
the constitution itself.
11. Not only is he liable to the actio injuriarum who has inflicted
the injury, as, for instance, the person who has struck the blow ; but he
also who has maliciously caused or contrived that any one should be
166 INSTITUTIONS
struck in the face with the fist.
12. This action is extinguished by a person dissembling to have
received the injury; and therefore, a person who has taken no account
of the injury, that is, who immediately on receiving it has shown no
resentment at it, cannot afterwards change his mind and resuscitate
the injury he has allowed to rest
ROME AT THE END OF THE PUNIC WARS
BY POLYBIUS
ROME, with the end of the third Punic war, 146 B. C, had com-
pletely conquered the last of the civilized world. The best authority
for this period of her history is Polybius. He was born in Arcadia,
in 204 B. C., and died in 122 B. C. Polybius was an officer of the
Achaean League, which sought by federating the Peloponnesus to make
it strong enough to keep its independence against the Romans, but
Rome was already too strong to be resisted, and arresting a thousand
of the most influential members, sent them to Italy to await trial for
conspiracy. Polybius had the good fortune, during seventeen years
exile, to be allowed to live with the Scipios. He was present at the
destructions of Carthage and Corinth, in 146 B. C., and did more than
anyone else to get the Greeks to accept the inevitable Roman rule.
Polybius is the most reliable, but not the most brilliant, of ancient
historians.
AN ANALYSIS OF THE ROMAN GOVERNMENT
THE THREE kinds of government, monarchy, aristocracy and dem-
ocracy, were all found united in the commonwealth of Rome. And so
even was the balance between them all, and so regular the administra-
tion that resulted from their union, that it was no easy thing to deter-
mine with assurance, whether the entire state was to be estimated an
aristoci'acy, a democracy, or a monarchy. For if they turned their view
upon the power of the consuls, the government appeared to be purely
monarchial and regal. If, again, the authority of the senate was con-
INSTITUTIONS 167
sidered, it then seemed to wear the form of aristocracy. And, lastly,
if regard was to be had to the share which the people possessed in the
administration of affairs, it could then scarcely fail to be denominated a
popular state. The several powers that were appropriated to each
of these distinct branches of the constitution at the time of which we
are speaking, and which, with very little variation, are even still pre-
served, are these which follow.
The consuls, when they remain in Rome, before they lead out the
armies into the field, are the masters of all public affairs. For all
other magistrates, the tribunes alone excepted, are subject to them, and
bound to obey their commands. They introduce ambassadors into the
senate. They propose also to the senate the subjects of debates ; and
direct all forms that are observed in making the decrees. Nor is it less
a part of their office likewise, to attend to those affairs that are trans-
acted by the people ; to call together general assemblies ; to report to
them the resolutions of the senate ; and to ratify whatever is determined
by the greater number. In all the preparations that are made for war,
as well as in the whole administration in the field, they possess an
almost absolute authority. For to them it belongs to impose upon the
allies whatever services they judge expedient ; to appoint the military
tribunes; to enroll the legions, and make the necessary levies, and to
inflict punishments in the field, upon all that are subject to their com-
mand. Add to this, that they have the power likewise to expend what-
ever sums of money they may think convenient from the public treas-
ury ; being attended for that purpose by a quaestor ; who is always ready
to receive and execute their orders. When any one therefore, directs
his view to this part of the constitution, it is very reasonable for him
to conclude that this government is no other than a simple royalty. Let
me only observe, that if in some of these particular points, or in those
that will hereafter be mentioned, any change should be either now re-
marked, or should happen at some future time, such an alteration will
not destroy the general principles of this discourse.
To the senate belongs, in the first place, the sole care and manage-
ment of the public money. For all returns that are brought into the
treasury, as well as all the payments that are issued from it, are directed
by their orders. Nor is it allowed to the quaestors to apply any part of
the revenue to particular occasions as they arise, without a decree of the
senate; those sums alone excepted, which are expended in the service
of the consuls. And even those more general, as well as greatest dis-
bursements, which are employed at the return every five years, in
168 INSTITUTIONS
building and repairing the public edifices, are assigned to the censors
for that purpose, by the express permission of the senate. To the
senate also is referred the cognizance of all the crimes, committed in
any part of Italy, that demand a public examination and inquiry: such
as treasons, conspiracies, poisonings, and assassinations. Add to this,
that when any controversies arise, either between private men, or any
of the cities of Italy, it is the part of the senate to adjust all disputes ;
to censure those that are deserving of blame : and to yield assistance
lo those who stand in need of protection and defence. When any
embassies are sent out of Italy ; either to reconcile contending states ;
to offer exhortations and advice ; or even, as it sometimes happens, to
impose commands; to propose conditions of a treaty; or to make a
denunciation of war; the care and conduct of all these transactions is
entrusted wholly to the senate. When any ambassadors also arrive in
Rome, it is the senate likewise that determines how they shall be
received and treated, and what answer shall be given to their demands.
In all these things that have now been mentioned, the people has no
share. To those, therefore, who come to reside in Rome during the
absence of the consuls, the government appears to be purely aristo-
cratical. Many of the Greeks, especially, and of the foreign princes,
are easily led into this persuasion : when they percieve that almost all
the affairs, which they are forced to negotiate with the Romans, are
determined by the senate.
And now it may well be asked, what part is left to the people in
this government : since the senate, on the one hand, is vested with the
sovereign power, in the several instances that have been enumerated,
and more especially in all things that concern the management and
disposal of the public treasure; and since the consuls, on the other
hand, are entrusted with the absolute direction of the preparations
that are made for war, and exercise an uncontrolled authority on the
field. There is, however, a part still allotted to the people; and, in-
deed, the most important part. For, first, the people are the sole dis-
pensers of rewards and punishments; which are the only bands by
which states and kingdoms, and, in a word, all human societies, are
held together. For when the difference between these is overlooked,
or when they are distributed without due distinction, nothing but dis-
order can ensue. Nor is it possible, indeed, that the government should
be maintained if the wicked stand in equal estimation with the good.
The people, then, when any such offences demand such punishment, fre-
quently condemn citizens to the payment of a fine : those especially who
INSTITUTIONS |fl
liavc been invested with the dignities of the state. To the people
alone belongs the right to sentence any one to die. Upon this occasion
they have a custom which deserves to be mentioned with applause.
The person accused is allowed to withdraw himself in open view, and
embrace a voluntary banishment, if only a single tribe remains that has
not yet given judgment ; and is suffered to retire in safety to Praeneste,
Tibur, Naples, or any other of the confederate cities. The public
magistrates are allotted also by the people to those who are esteemed
worthy of them : and these are the noblest rewards that any government
can bestow on virtue. To the people belongs the power of approving or
rejecting laws, and, which is still of greater importance, peace and war
are likewise fixed by their deliberations. When any alliance is con-
cluded, any war ended, or treaty made; to them the conditions are
referred, and by them either annulled or ratified. And thus again,
from a view of all these circumstances, it might with reason be im-
agined, that the people had engrossed the largest portion of the gov-
ernment, and that the state was plainly a democracy.
Such are the parts of the administration, which are distinctly as-
signed to each of the three forms of government, that are united in the
commonwealth of Rome. It now remains to be considered, in what
manner each several form is enabled to counteract the others, or to co-
operate with them.
When the consuls, invested with the power that has been men-
tioned, lead the armies into the field, though they seem, indeed, to hold
such absolute authority as is ufficient for all purposes, yet are they in
truth so dependent both on the senate and the people, that without their
assistance they are by no means able to accomplish any design. It is
well known that armies demand a continual supply of necessities. But
neither corn, nor habits, nor even the military stipends, can at any time
be transmitted to the legions unless by an express order of the senate.
Any opposition, therefore, or delay, on the part of this assembly, is
sufficient always to defeat the enterprises of the generals. It is the
senate, likewise, that either compels the consuls to leave their designs
•Imperfect, or enables them to complete the projects which they have
formed, by sending a successor into each of their several provinces,
upon the expiration of the annual term, or by continuing them in the
same command. The senate also has the power to aggrandize and
amplify the victories that are gained, or, on the contrary, to depreciate
and debase them. For that which is called among the Romans a tri-
umph, in which a sensible representation of the actions of the generals
170 INSTITUTIONS
is exposed in solemn procession to the view of all the citizens, can
neither be exhibited with due pomp and splendor, nor, indeed, be in any
other manner celebrated, unless the consent of the senate be first
obtained, together with the sums that are requisite for the expense.
Nor is it less necessary, on the other hand, that the consuls, how far
soever they may happen to be removed from Rome, should be careful to
preserve the good affections of the people. For the people, as we have
already mentioned, annuls or ratifies all treaties. But that which is of
greatest moment is that the consuls, at the time of laying down their
office are bound to submit their past administration to the judgment
of the people. And thus these magistrates can at no time think them-
selves secure, if they neglect to gain the approbation both of the senate
and the people.
In the same manner the senate also, though invested with so great
authority, is bound to yield a certain attention to the people, and to
act in concert with them in all affairs that are of great importance.
With regard especially to those offiences that are committed against
the state, and which demand a capital punishment, no inquiry can be
perfected, nor any judgment carried into execution, unless the people
confirm what the senate has before decreed. Nor are the things which
more immediately regard the senate itself less subject than the same
control. For if a law should at any time be proposed to lessen the
received authority of the senators, to detract from thoir honors and
pre-eminence, or even deprive them of a part of their possessions, it be-
longs wholly to the people to establish or reject it. And even still
more, the interposition of a single tribune is sufficient, not only to sus-
pend the deliberations of the senate, but to prevent them also from
holding any meeting or assembly. Now the peculiar office of the
tribunes is to declare those sentiments that are most pleasing to the
people: and principally to promote their interests and designs. And
thus the senate, on account of all these reasons, is forced to cultivate
the favor and gratify the inclinations of the people.
The people again, on their part, are held in dependence on the
senate, both to the particular members, and to the general body. In
every part of Italy there are works of various kinds, which are let to
farm by the censors, such are the building or repairing of the public
edifices, which are almost innumerable; the care of rivers, harbors,
mines and lands ; every thing, in a word, that falls beneath the dominion
of the Romans. In all these things the people are the undertakers : in-
asmuch as there are scarcely any to be found that are not in some way
INSTITUTIONS 171
involved, cither in the contracts, or in the management of the works.
For some take the farms of the censors at a certain price ; others be-
come partners with the first. Some, again, engage themselves as sure-
ties for the farmers ; and others, in support also of these sureties, pledge
their own fortunes to the state. Now, the supreme direction of all these
affairs is placed wholly in the senate. The senate has the power to allot
a longer time, to lighten the conditions of the agreement, in case that
any accident has intervened, or even to release the contractors from
their bargain, if the terms should be found impracticable. There are
also many other circumstances in which those that are engaged in
any of the public works may be either greatly injured or greatly
benefited by the senate ; since to this body, as we have already observed,
all things that belong to these transactions are constantly referred. But
there is still another advantage of much greater moment. For from
this order, likewise, judges are selected, in almost every accusation of
considerable weight, whether it be of a public or private nature. The
people, thereiore, being by these means held under due subjection and
restraint, and doubtful of obtaining that protection, which they foresee
that they may at some time want, are always cautious of exciting any
opposition to the measures of the senate. Nor are they, on the other
hand, less ready to pay obedience to the orders of the consuls ; through
the dread of that supreme authority, to which the citizens in general, as
well as each particular man, are obnoxious in the field.
Thus, while each of these separate parts is enabled either to assist
or obstruct the rest, the government, by the apt contexture of them
all in the general frame, is so well secured against every accident, that it
seems scarcely possible to invent a more perfect system. For when
the dread of any common danger, that threatens from abroad, con-
strains all the orders of the state to unite together, and co-operate with
joint assistance ; such is the strength of the republic that as, on the
one hand, no measures that are necessary are neglected, while all men
fix their thoughts upon the present exigency ; so neither is it possible, on
the other hand, that their designs should at any time be frustrated
through the want of due celerity, because all in general, as well as every
citizen in particular, employ their utmost efforts to carry what has
been determined into execution. Thus the government, by the very
form and peculiar nature of its constitution, is equally enabled to resist
all attacks, and to accomplish every purpose. And when again all
apprehensions of foreign enemies are past, and the Romans being now
settled in tranquility, and enjoying at their leisure all the fruits of
172 INSTITUTIONS
victory, begin to yield to the seduction of ease and plenty, and, as it
happens usually in such conjunctures, become haughty and ungovern-
able ; then chiefly may we observe in what manner the same constitution
likewise finds in itself a remedy against the impending danger. For
whenever either of the separate parts of the republic attempts to ex-
ceed its proper limits, excites contention and dispute, and struggles
to obtain a greater share of power, than that which is assigned to it
by the laws, it is manifest, that since no one single part, as we have
shown in this discourse, is in itself supreme or absolute, but that on the
contrary, the powers which are assigned to each are still subject to
reciprocal control, the part, which thus aspires, must soon be reduced
again within its own just bounds, and not be suffered to insult or
depress the rest. And thus the several orders, of which the state
is framed, are forced always to maintain their due position : being partly
counterworked in their designs ; and partly also restrained from making
any attempt, by the dread «of falling under that authority to which they
are exposed.
THE MILITARY INSTITUTIONS OF THE ROMANS
I.
As soon as the consuls are declared, the military tribunes are next
appointed. Of these, fourteen are taken from the citizens who have
carried arms in five campaigns ; and ten more from those who completed
ten. For every citizen, before he arrives at the age of forty-six, is
obliged to serve either ten years in the cavalry, or sixteen in the in-
fantry : those alone excepted who are placed by the censors below the
rate of four hundred drachmae ; and who are all reserved for the service
of the sea. In the case of any pressing danger the time of continuing
in the infantry is extended to twenty years. No citizen is permitted
by the laws to sue for any magistracy before he has completed the serv-
ing of ten campaigns.
When the enrollments are to be made the consuls give notice before
to the people of a certain day, upon which all the Romans that are of
sufficient age are required to attend. This is done every year. And
when the day arrives, and the men all appear at Rome, and are assem-
bled afterwards in the Capitol, the tribunes of the youngest order divide
themselves, as they are appointed either by the consuls or the people,
into four separate bodies. For this division corresponds with the first
INSTITUTIONS 173
and general distribution of all the forces into four separate legions.
Of these tribunes, therefore, the four first named are assigned to the
first legion; the three next to the second; the following four to the
third; and the last three appointed to the fourh. Of the tribunes of
the oldest order the two that are first named are placed in the first
legion ; the three second in the second ; the two that follow in the third ;
and the remaining three in the fourth. By this distribution and division
an equal number of commanders is allotted to each legion. When this
is done, the tribunes of each legion, having taken their seats apart, draw
out the tribes one by one by lot; and calling to them that upon which
the lot first falls, they select from it four young men, as nearly equal
as is possible in age and stature. And when these are brought forward
from the rest, the tribunes of the first legion first choose one; then
those of the second a second; those of the third take the third; and
those of the fourth the last. After these four more are made to ap-
proach. And now the tribunes of the second legion first make their
choice; then those of the rest in order; and last of all the tribunes of
the first. In the same manner again, from the next four that follow,
the tribunes of the third legion choose the first; and those of the second
the last. And thus, by observing the same method of rotation to the
end, it happens that the legions, with respect to the men of which they
are composed are all alike and equal. The number allotted to each
legion is four thousand and two hundred; and sometimes five thousand,
when any great and unusual danger is foreseen. After these had been
thus selected it was anciently the custom to choose the cavalry; and to
add two hundred horsemen to each four thousand of the infantry.
But in the present times, the citizens, of whom the cavalry is composed,
are first enrolled ; having been before appointed by the censors, accord-
ing to the rate of their revenue; and three hundred are assigned to
every legion.
When the enrollments are in this manner finished, the tribunes
having assembled together in separate bodies the soldiers of their re-
spective legions, choose out a man that seems most proper for the pur-
pose, and make him swear in the following words : "that he will be
obedient to his commanders, and execute all the orders that he shall
receive from them to the utmost of his power." The rest of the soldiers
of the legion, advancing one by one, swear also that they will perform
what the first has sworn. About the same time, likewise, the consuls
send notice to the magistrates of the allied cities of Italy, from which
they design to draw any forces, what number of troops are wanted, and
174 INSTITUTIONS
at what time and place they are required to join the Roman army. The
cities, having raised their levies in the same manner that has now been
mentioned, and administered to them the same oath, send them away
attended by a paymaster and a general.
At Rome the tribunes, after the ceremony of the oath is finished,
command all the legions to return without arms upon a certain day,
and then dismiss them. And when they are met together again at the
appointed time, those that are youngest, and of the lowest condition,
are set apart for the light-armed troops. From the next above these in
age are selected the hastati ; from those that are in full strength and
vigor, the principes; and the oldest of all that are enrolled are the
triarii. For every legion is composed of all these different bodies ; dif-
ferent in name, in age, and in the manner in which they are armed.
This division is so adjusted that the triarii amount to six hundred men ;
the principes are twelve hundred ; the hastati an equal number ; and all
the rest light-armed. If a legion consist of more than four thousand
men, the several bodies are increased in due proportion ; except only
that the number of the triarii always remains the same.
The youngest of these troops are armed with a sword, light jave-
lins, and a buckler. The buckler is both strongly made, and of a size
sufficient for security. For it is of a circular form, and has three feet
in the diameter. They wear likewise upon their heads some simple
sort of covering ; such as the skin of a wolf, or something of a similar
kind ; which serves both for their defense, and to, point out also to the
commanders those particular soldiers that are distinguished either by
their bravery or want of courage in the time of action. The wood of
the javelins is of the length of two cubits, and of the thickness of a
finger. The iron part is a span in length, and is drawn out to such a
slender fineness towards the point, that it never fails to be bent in the
very first discharge, so that the enemy cannot throw it back again.
Otherwise it would be a common javelin.
The next in age, who are called the hastati, are ordered to furnish
themselves with a complete suit of armour. This among the Romans
consists in the first place of a shield of a convex surface ; the breadth
of which is two feet and a half; and the length four feet, or four feet
and a palm of those of the largest size. It is composed of two planks,
glued together, and covered first with linen, and afterwards with calves'
skin. The extreme edges of it, both above and below, are guarded with
plates of iron ; as well to secure it against the strokes of swords, as that
it may be rested ialso upon tne ground without receiving any injury.
INSTITUTIONS 175
To the surface is fitted likewise a shell of iron ; which serves to turn
aside the more violent strokes of stones, or spears, or any other ponder-
ous weapon. After the shield comes the sword, which is carried upon
the right thigh, and is called the Spanish sword. It is formed not
only to push with at the point ; but to make a falling stroke with either
edge, and with singular effect ; for the blade is remarkably strong and
firm. To these arms are added two piles or javelins ; a helmet made of
brass ; and boots for the legs. The piles are of two sorts ; the one large,
the other slender. Of the former those that axe round have the breadth
of a palm in their diameter ; and those that are square the breadth of a
palm likewise is a side. The more slender, which are carried with the
other, resemble a common javelin of a moderate size. In both sorts,
the wooden part is of the same length likewise, and turned outwards
at the point, in the form of a double hook, is fastened to the wood with
so great care and foresight, being carried upwards to the very middle
of it, and transfixed with many close-set rivets, that it is sooner broken
in use than loosened ; though in the part in which it is joined to the
wood, it is not less than a finger and a half in thickness. Upon the
helmet is worn an ornament of three upright feathers, either red or
black, of about a cubit in height ; which being fixed upon the very top
of the head, and added to their other arms, make the troops seem td be
of double size, and gives them an appearance which is both beautiful
and terrible. Beside these arms, the soldiers in general place also upon
their breasts a square plate of brass, of the measure of a span on either
side, which is called the guard of the heart. But all those who are rated
at more than ten thousand drachmae cover their breasts with a coat of
mail. The principes and the triarii are armed in the same manner like-
wise as the hastati ; except only that the triarii carry pikes instead of
javelins.
From each of these several sorts of soldiers, the youngest alone
excepted, ten men of distinguished merit are first selected ; and after
these, ten more. These are all called commanders of companies ; and
he that is first chosen has a seat in the military council. After these,
twenty more are appointed to conduct the rear ; and are chosen by the
former twenty. The soldiers of each different order, the light troops
excepted, are then divided into ten separate parts ; to each of which are
assigned four officers, of those who have been thus selected; two to
lead the van, and two to take the care of the rear. The light-armed
troops are distributed in just proportion among them all. Each separate
part is called a company, a band, or an ensign ; and the leaders, captains
176 INSTITUTIONS
of companies or centurions. Last of all, two of the bravest and most
vigorous among the soldiers are appointed by the captains to carry the
standards of the company. It is not without good reason that two cap-
tains are assigned to every company. For as it always is uncertain,
what will be the conduct of an officer, or to what accidents he may be
exposed ; and, as in the affairs of war, there is no room for pretext or
excuse ; this method is contrived, that the company may not upon any
occasion be destitute of a leader. When the captains therefore both
are present, he that was first chosen leads the right, and the other the
left of the company. And when either of them is absent, he that re-
mains takes the conduct of the whole. In the choice of these captains
not those that are the boldest and most enterprising are esteemed the
best ; but those rather, who are steady and sedate ; prudent in conduct,
and skillful in command. Nor is it so much required, that they should
be at all times eager to begin the combat, and throw themselves precipi-
tately into action ; as that, when they are pressed, or even conquered by
a superior force, they should still maintain their ground, and rather die
than desert their station.
The cavalry is divided also into ten parts or troops. In each of
these, three captains first are chosen; who afterwards appoint three
other officers to conduct the rear. The first of the captains commands
the whole troop. The other two hold the rank and office of decurions ;
and all of them are called by that name. In the absence of the first cap-
tain, the next m order takes the entire command. The manner in which
these troops are armed is at this time the same as that of the Greeks.
But anciently it was very different. For, first, they wore no armour
upon their bodies ; but were covered, in the time of action, with only an
undergarment. In this method, they were able indeed to descend from
their horses, or leap up again upon them, with greater quickness and
facility ; but, as they were almost naked, they were too much exposed
to danger in all those engagements. The spears also that were in use
among them in former times were, in a double respect, very unfit for
service. First, as they were of a slender make, and always trembled in
the hand, it not only was extremely difficult to direct them with exact-
ness towards the destined mark ; but very frequently, even before their
points had reached the enemy, the greatest part of them were shaken
into pieces by the bare motion of the horses. Add to this, that these
spears, not being armed with iron at the lowest end, were formed to
strike only with the point, and, when they were broken by this stroke,
were afterwards incapable of any farther use. Their buckler was.madc
INSTITUTIONS 177
of the hide of an ox, and in form was not unlike to those globular dishes
which are used in sacrifices. But this was also of too infirm a texture
for defense ; and, as it was at first not very capable of service, it after-
wards became wholly useless, when the substance of it had been soft-
ened and relaxed by rain. The Romans, therefore, having observed
these defects, soon changed their weapons for the armour of the Greeks,
For the Grecian spear, which is firm and stable, not only serves to make
the first stroke with the point in just direction and with sure effect;
but, with the help of the iron at the opposite end, may, when turned, be
employed against the enemy with equal steadiness and force. In the
same manner also the Grecian shields, being strong in texture, and
capable of being held in a fixed position, are alike serviceable both for
attack and for defense. These advantages were soon perceived, and
the arms adopted by the cavalry. For the Romans, above all other
people, are excellent in admitting foreign customs that are preferable
io their own.
As soon as this partition of the troops is finished, and the neces-
sary orders given by the tribunes concerning the*ir arms, they are then
commanded to return to their respective habitations, till the day arrives,
upon which they are bound by oath to assemble together in a certain
place appointed by the consuls. Each of the consuls usually appoints
a different place for the assembling of his whole.army : for to each of
them are allotted separately two Roman legions, together with an equal
part of the allies. No pretense of accident is at any time allowed to
those that are enrolled ; nor any excuse admitted, in opposition to their
oath, to discharge them from appearing on the day prescribed ; unless
some auspices should intervene, or some disaster happen, which renders
their attendance absolutely impracticable. When they are all met to-
gether, the distribution of the allies, who are assembled also with the
Romans, is regulated by twelve officers, called prefects, and appointed
by the consuls, in the following manner. They first choose out from
all the allies a body of the bravest and most skillful soldiers, both caval-
ry and infantry, to serve near the person, and under the immediate
orders, of the consuls. These are called the extraordinary, or selected
troops. The whole infantry of the allies is usually the same in number
with that of the Romans ; but the cavalry three times as many. Among
these, about a third part of the cavalry, and a fifth part of the infantry,
are set apart as extraordinaries. The rest are then divided by the pre-
fects into two equal bodies; one of which is called the right, and the
other the left wing. When all things are thus prepared, the tribunes
178 INSTITUTIONS
direct both the Romans and the allies to encamp.
III.
As soon as the encampment is completed, the tribunes, having
assembled together all the persons, both free men and slaves, that are
in the army, administer to every one of them apart the following oath :
"That they will not steal any thing from the camp; and even if they
find any thing that they will bring it to the tribunes." Two companies
are then selected from the principes and the hastati of each legion ; to
whose care is assigned the ground that lies before the tents of the
tribunes. For as the Romans usually pass the whole time of day in this
open space, they employ great care to keep it continually cleansed and
sprinkled. Of the remaining eighteen companies three are allotted to
every tribune. For in every legion there are twenty companies of prin-
cipes and hastati, as we have already mentioned, and six tribunes. The
service which these three companies are obliged to perform in turn for
the tribune to whom they are respectively assigned is to fix his tent,
to make the ground around it plain and level, and to cover his baggage,
if it be necessary, with a fence. It is their duty likewise to place a
double guard near him for his security. This guard consists of four
soldiers, two of whom are stationed before the tent, and two behind it,
near to the horses. As three companies are thus allotted to every trib-
une, and as each company, without including the triarii and the light-
armed troops, who are both exempted from this duty, contains more
than a hundred men, this service falling to each company in turn upon
every fourth day only, becomes very light and easy ; and, while it minis-
ters in all things that are necessary to the convenience of the tribunes,
renders their office likewise more illustrious, and brings respect to their
authority.
The triarii are discharged from bearing any part in this attend-
ance. But each of their companies is obliged to furnish every day a
guard to the troop of cavalry that lies close behind it. The duty of this
guard, among other functions, is principally to observe the horses ; that
they may not at any time be rendered unfit for service by being entan-
gled in the bands that hold them ; or by breaking away, and falling in
among other horses, create tumult and disorder in the camp. One
company alone, which is selected in turn from the whole body of these
troops, is stationed round the tent of the consul : as well to secure his
person against all surprise, as for the sake of adding splendor also to
his dignity.
INSTITUTIOXS
The entrenchment is made by the allies, on those two sides, near
to which their wings are encamped. The two other sides are left to
the Romans ; to each legion, one. Each side is divided into certain por-
tions, according to the number of the companies: and a centurion
assigned, to overlook the work in every portion. The whole side is
afterwards examined and approved by two of the tribunes; whose
office it is to attend to every thing that is done in the camp. For the
tribunes, dividing among themselves the time of their campaign, and
presiding, two in turn, during two months of the six, have the supreme
direction of every kind of necessary work and service, that falls within
the time of their command. The same duty is performed, in the same
manner likewise, among the allies, by the officers who are called pre-
fects.
As soon as daylight appears, the leaders of the cavalry, and the
centurions, attend all together at the tents of the tribunes; and the
tribunes at that of the consul. The necessary orders are then delivered
by the consul to the tribunes ; by the tribunes to the centurions and the
leaders of the cavalry ; and by these, as the proper time for each arrives,
to the rest of the army.
The delivery of the signal for the night is secured in the following
manner. Every tenth cohort, both of infantry and cavalry, is lodged at
the extreme end of those lines which form the separate streets. From
each of these a soldier is selected, who is discharged from all the duties
of the guard. This soldier, every day about the time of the setting of
the sun, goes to the tent of the tribune, and receives from him the sig-
nal ; which is a flat tablet of wood, with some word inscribed upon it ;
and having returned back again to his own company, he then delivers
the tablet with the signal, in the presence of some witnesses, to the
leader of the cohort that is lodged next to his own. From him again, it
passes to the following cohort; and, in the same manner, through all
the rest in order, till it arrives at the first cohorts, which lie nearest to
the tents of the tribunes ; and from thence it is carried back again to
the tribunes, while it is yet day. If all the tablets that were delivered
are brought back, the tribune then perceives that the signal has passed
through all the camp. But if any one be wanting, he immediately ex-
amines into the fact ; and, having discerned by the inscriptions in what
quarter the tablet has been stopped, inflicts a suitable punishment upon
those that have been the cause of that neglect.
The guards for the night are thus disposed. One entire company
is always stationed around the consular tent. The tents of the tribunes,
180 INSTITUTIONS
and the cavalry, are guarded by soldiers taken from each company, in
the manner that has before been mentioned. Each separate company
appoints a guard likewise for itself from its own body. The other
guards are disposed as the consul directs. But the usual custom is, to
allot three soldiers to the quaestor ; and two to each of the members of
the council. The external sides of the camp are guarded by the light-
armed forces ; who are distributed every day along the whole intrench-
ment. From the same body, ten men are also stationed before every
gate that leads into the camp.
Among those that are appointed for the watch, one soldier from
each guard, the same whose duty it is to take the first watch, is carried
in the evening to the tribune, by one of the conductors of the rear of
every company. The tribune, having given to all of them some small
tablets of wood, inscribed with a certain character, and appropriated to
each particular guard, dismisses them to their respective stations.
The care of making the rounds is entrusted to the cavalry. The
captain of the first troop in each of the legions is bound to send his
orders in the morning to one of the conductors of the rear ; commanding
him to appoint, before the time of dinner, four soldiers of the troop to
go the rounds ; and to send notice also afterwards, in the evening, to
the leader of the second troop, that it is his turn to inspect the watch on
the following day. The leader of the second troop gives notice, in like
manner, for the third day ; and the same method is observed through
all the rest. The four soldiers, who are thus selected from the first
troop by the conductor of the rear, having determined among them-
selves each particular watch by lot, go afterwards to the tent of the
tribune, and receive from thence in writing an account of the several
posts, and of the number of guards, which they are required to visit.
They then take their station near to the first company of the triarii. For
the leader of this company has the care of marking the time of every
watch by the sound of a trumpet. And when the signal is made, he, to
whose inspection the first watch was allotted, taking with him some of
his friends as witnesses, goes round to all the posts that are recited in
his orders, and visits all the guards : not those alone that are stationed
round the intrenchment, and before the gates, but those also that are
placed in every single company and in every troop. If he finds the
sentinels awake and fixed in their several stations, he receives from
them the wooden tablets. But if he discovers that any one is sleeping,
or has left his post, he desires those that are present to bear testimony
to the fact, and then retires. The same method is observed in /ill the
INSTITUTIONS 181
following watches. The care of sounding the trumpet, by which notice
is given in the same moment both to the sentinels and the inspectors of
the watch, is left, as we have said, to the captains of the first company
of the triarii, who perform this duty alternately, day by day.
As soon as the morning appears, those who have made the rounds
carry the tablets to the tribune. If they bring the full number back they
are suffered to depart without any question. But if the number be less
than that of the guards, the inscriptions are immediately examined, in
order to discover from what particular guard the tablet has not been
returned. When this is known, the centurion is ordered to attend and
to bring with him the soldiers that were appointed for that guard ; that
they may be questioned face to face with him who made the rounds.
If the fault be in the guard, he that made the rounds appeals at once to
the testimony of his friends who were present. Such evidence always
is demanded from him ; and in case that he is not able to bring this
proof, the whole blame rests upon himself. The council is then assem-
bled ; the cause is judged by the tribune, and the guilty person sentenced
to be bastinaded. This punishment is inflicted in the following manner.
The tribune, taking a stick into his hand, gently touches the crim-
inal ; and immediately afterwards all the soldiers of the legion attack
him with sticks and stones ; so that the greatest part of those that are
thus condemned are destroyed immediately in the camp. If any one
escapes, yet he is not saved. For all return into his country is shut
against him: nor would any of his friends or kindred ever dare to
receive him into their houses. Those, therefore, who have once fallen
into this misfortune are lost without resource. The conductor of the
rear, and the leader of the troops, if ever they neglect to give the neces-
sary notice in due time, the first to the inspectors of the watch, and the
second to the leader of the succeeding troop, are subject also to this
punishment. From the dread of a discipline so severe, and which
leaves no place for mercy, every thing that belongs to the guards of the
night is performed with the exactest diligence and care.
The soldiers are subject to the control of the tribunes, as these are
to that of the consuls. The tribunes have the power of imposing fines,
and demanding sureties, and of punishing with stripes. The same
authority is exercised by the prefects among the allies.
The punishment of the bastinade is inflicted also upon those who
steal any thing in the camp ; those who bear false testimony ; who, in
their youth, abuse their bodies; and who have been three times con-
victed of one fault. These offenses are punished as crimes. There
182 INSTITUTIONS
are others that are regarded as the effects of cowardice, and disgraceful
to the military character. When a soldier, for example, with a view
of obtaining a reward, makes a report to the tribunes of some brave
action which he has not performed. When any one, through fear,
deserts his station, or throws away his arms in the time of engagement.
For hence it happens that many, through the dread of the allotted pun-
ishment, when they are attacked by much greater numbers, will even
encounter manifest destruction, rather than desert that post which they
had been ordered to maintain. Others again, when they have lost their
shield, or sword, or any other part of their arms in the time of action,
throw themselves precipitately into the very midst of the enemy ; hoping
either to recover what they have lost, or to avoid by death the reproaches
of their fellow-soldiers, and the disgrace that is ready to receive them.
If it happens that many are at one time guilty of the same fault,
and that whole companies retire before the enemy, and desert their sta-
tion; instead of punishing all of them by death, an expedient is em-
ployed which is both useful and full of terror. The tribune, assembling
together all the soldiers of the legion, commands the criminals to be
brought forwards : and, having sharply reproached them with their
cowardice, he then draws out by lot either five, or eight, or twenty men,
according to the number of those that have offended. For the propor-
tion is usually so adjusted, that every tenth man is reserved for punish-
ment. Those, who are thus separated from the rest by lot, are basti-
nated without remission in the manner before described. The others
are sentenced to be fed with barley instead of wheat ; and are lodged
without the intrenchment, exposed to insults from the enemy. As the
danger, therefore, and the dread of death, hangs equally over all the
guilty, because no one can foresee upon whom the lot will fall ; and as
the shame and infamy of receiving barley only for their support is ex-
tended also alike to all ; this institution is perfectly well contrived, both
for impressing present terror, and for the prevention of future faults.
The method by which the young men are animated to brave all
danger is also admirable. When an action has passed in which any of
the soldiers have shewn signal proofs of courage, the consul, assembling
the troops together, commands those to approach who have distin-
guished themselves by any eminent exploit. And having first bestowed
on every one of them apart the commendation that is due to this par-
ticular instance of their valor, and recounted likewise all their former
actions that have ever merited applause, he then distributes among
them the following rewards. To him who has wounded an enemy, a
INSTITUTIONS 183
javelin. To him who has killed an enemy, and stripped him of his
armor, if he be a soldier in the infantry, a goblet ; if in the cavalry, fur-
niture for his horse ; though, in former times, this last was presented
only with a javelin. These rewards, however, are not bestowed upon
the soldiers who, in a general battle, or in the attack of a city, wound or
spoil an enemy ; but upon those alone who, in separate skirmishes, and
when any occasion offers, in which no necessity requires them to engage
in single contest, throw themselves voluntarily into danger, and with
design provoke the combat. When a city is taken by storm, those who
mount first upon the walls are honored with a golden crown. Those
also who have saved the lives of any of the citizens, or the allies, by cov-
ering them from the enemy in the time of battle, receive presents from
the consul, and are crowned likewise by the persons themselves who
have thus been preserved, and who, if they refuse this office, are com-
pelled by the judgment of the tribunes to perform it. Add to this, that
those who are thus saved are bound, during the remainder of their
lives, to reverence their preserver as a father, and to render to him all
the duties which they would pay to him who gave them birth. Nor are
the effects of these rewards, in raising a spirit of emulation and of
courage, confined to those alone who are present in the army, but ex-
tended likewise to all the citizens at home. For those who have obtained
those presents, beside the honor which they acquire among their fellow-
soldiers, and the reputation which immediately attends them in their
country, are distinguished after their return, by wearing in all solemn
processions such ornaments as are permitted only to be worn by those
who have received them from the consuls as the rewards of their valor.
They hang up likewise in the most conspicuous parts of their houses
the spoils which they have taken, as a monument and evidence of their
exploits. Since such, therefore, is the attention and the care with
which the Romans distribute rewards and punishments in their armies,
it is not to be thought strange that the wars in which they engage are
always ended with glory and success.
The military stipends are thus regulated. The pay of a soldier in
the infantry is two oboli by the day ; and double to the centurions. The
pay of the cavalry is a drachma. The allowance of corn to each man
in the infantry consists of about two-third parts of an Attic bushel of
wheat by the month. In the cavalry, it is seven bushels of barley, and
two of wheat. To the infantry of the allies the same quantity is distrib-
uted as to that of the Romans: but their cavalry receives only one
bushel and a third of wheat, and five of barley. The whole of this
184 INSTITUTIONS
allowance is given without reserve to the allies. But the Roman sol-
diers are obliged to purchase their corn and clothes, together with the
arms which they occasionally want, at a certain stated price, which is
deducted by the quaestor from their pay.
In breaking up the camp the following order is observed. When
the first signal is made, the soldiers all take down the tents, and collect
the baggage. No tent, however, is at any time either set up or taken
down until those of the consul and the tribunes are first set up, or first
removed. Upon the second signal the baggage is placed upon the beasts
of burden; and at the third, the foremost of the troops begin their
march, and the whole camp is put in motion. In the van are usually
placed the extraordinaries ; and after these the right wing of the allies,
which is followed by the baggage of both these bodies. Next to these
marches the first of the Roman legions, with its baggage also behind it.
The second legion follows ; having behind it likewise both its own bag-
gage, and the baggage of the allies, who are in the rear ; for the rear of
all the march is closed with the left wing of the allies. The cavalry
marches sometimes in the rear of the respective bodies to which it
belongs ; and sometimes on the flanks of the beasts that are loaded with
the baggage ; keeping them together in due order, and covering them
from insult. When an attack is expected to be made upon the rear,
the extraordinaries of the allies, instead of leading the van, are posted
in the rear. In all the other parts the disposition remains the same.
Of the two legions, and the two wings of the allies, those that are on
one day foremost in the march, on the following day are placed behind ;
that, by thus changing their rank alternately all the troops may obtain
the same advantage in their turn, of arriving first at water and at for-
age. There is also another disposition which is used when any imme-
diate danger threatens, and the march is made through an open coun-
try. At such times, the hastati, the principes, and the triarii, are ranged
in three parallel lines, each behind the other, with the baggage of the
hastati in the front. Behind the hastati is placed the baggage of the
principes, who are followed likewise by that of the triarii ; so that the
baggage and the several bodies are mingled in alternate order. The
march being thus disposed, the troops, as soon as an attack is made,
turning either to the left or to the right, advance forwards from the
baggage towards that side upon which the enemy appears. And thus,
in a moment of time, and by one single movement, the whole army is
formed at once in order of battle ; except only that the hastati are per-
haps obliged to make an evolution ; and the beasts of burden also, with
i : I IONS 185
all those ihai. attend upon the baggage, being now thrown into the rear
of all the troops, are covered by them from all danger.
At the end of a march, when the army arrives near the place of
their encampment, a tribune and some centurions, who are appointed
always for this purpose, advance before the rest. And having surveyed
the whole ground upon which the encampment is to be made, they first
determine the place of the consular tent, and on which side of it the
legions may most commodiously be lodged. When this is done, they
measure out the space that is allotted for the consul ; and then draw a
line for the place of the tents of the tribunes ; and parallel to it another
line, below which the legions are to be encamped. In the same manner
also the several portions of the ground, which lies on the other side of
the consular tent, and which we have already particularly described,
are ascertained by lines. And as the distances are fixed, and well known
by use, the admeasurement of the whole is easy, and soon completed.
Four ensigns are then planted in the ground, the first in the place in
which the tent of the consul is to be set up ; the second, on that side ol
the consular ground which has been chosen for the front of the camp ;
the third in the middle of the line that is designed for the tents of the
tribunes ; and the last upon the other parallel line below which the
legions are to be encamped. These ensigns are all of a purple color ;
that of the consul excepted, which is white. The portions on the other
side of the consular ground are sometimes marked by simple pikes
fixed in the ground, and sometimes by ensigns of some different color.
Last of all, the several streets are drawn out by measure, and pikes also
planted to denote the limits of each particular street. The necessary
effect of this method is, that when the troops upon their march approach
so near as to discover the place of their encampments, they are able to
discern at once all the different parts of the camp ; being taught by the
ensign of the consul to point out and distinguish all the rest. And as
they all occupy the same place always in the camp, so that each man
knows in what particular street, and in what part also of the street,
he is going to be lodged, their entrance very much resembles that of a
body of soldiers into their own native city. For as these, already know-
ing, both in general and in particular, the quarters of the city in which
their habitations stand, turn aside immediately from the gates, and
arrive at their several houses without mistake ; just so it happens in the
Roman camp. It is to this facility indeed that the Romans chiefly at-
tend upon such occasions ; and, for the sake of obtaining it, pursue so
contrary a method to that of the Greeks. For the Greeks, when they
V 3-12
166 INSTITUTIONS
encamp, consider principally the natural strength of the place that is
chosen, and accommodate their disposition to h ; being partly studious
to avoid the labor of throwing up an entrenchment; and partly pur-
suaded also, that fortifications raised by art are always less secure
than those that are made by nature. In compliance, therefore, with
what the nature of the ground demands, they not only are obliged to
give every kind of figure to their camp, but to vary also the position
of the several parts, as the place for each is favorable or improper.
And from hence it happens that the soldier never knows with certainty
either his own place in the camp, or that of the body to which he be-
longs. But the Romans willingly submit to the task of making an en-
trenchment, and to other painful works, for the sake of the advantage
that is found, in employing a method which is never changed, and
which renders all the parts of the camp familiar to the army.
Such then in general are the institutions of the Romans, which
belong to the establishment of their armies, and more especially to the
manner of their encampment.
ROME AND CARTHAGE
The government of Carthage seems also to have been originally
well contrived with regard to those general forms that have been men-
tioned. For there were kings in this government, together with a sen-
ate, which was vested with aristocratical authority. The people likewise
enjoy the exercise of certain powers that were appropriated to them.
In a word, the entire frame of the republic very much resembled those
of Rome and Sparta. But at the time of the war of Hannibal the Car-
thaginian constitution was worse in its condition than the Roman. For
as nature has assigned to every body, every government, and every
action, three successive periods ; the first, of growth ; the second, of
perfection; and that which follows, of decay; and as the period of
perfection is the time in which they severally display their greatest
strength ; from hence arose the difference that was then found between
the two republics. For the government of Carthage, having reached
the highest point of vigor and perfection much sooner than that of
Rome, had now declined from it in the same proportion : whereas the
Romans, at this very time, had just raised their constitution to the most
flourishing and perfect state. The effect of this difference was, that
among the Carthaginians the people possessed the greatest sway in all
187
deliberations, but the senate among the Romans. And as, in the one
republic, all measures were determined by the multitude; and, in the
other, by the most eminent citizens ; of so great force was this advant-
age in the conduct of affairs, that the Romans, though brought by
repeated losses into the greatest danger, became, through the wisdom
of their counsels, superior to the Carthaginians in the war.
If we descend to a more particular comparison, we shall find, that
with respect to military science, for example, the Carthaginians, in the
management and conduct of a naval war, are more skillful than the
Romans. For the Carthaginians have derived this knowledge from
their ancestors through a long course of ages ; and are more exercised
in maritime affairs than any other people. But the Romans, on the
other hand, are far superior in all things that belong to the establish-
ment and discipline of armies. For this discipline, which is regarded
by them as the chief and constant object of their care, is utterly neg-
lected by the Carthaginians ; except only that they bestow some little
attention upon their cavalry. The reason of this difference is, that
the Carthaginians employ foreign mercenaries ; and that on the con-
trary the Roman armies are composed of citizens, and of the people of
the country. Now in this respect the government of Rome is greatly
preferable to that of Carthage. For while the Carthaginians entrust
the preservation of their liberty to the care of venal troops ; the Romans
place all their confidence in their own bravery, and in the assistance of
their allies. From hence it happens, that the Romans, though at first
defeated, are always able to renew the war ; and that the Carthaginian
armies never are repaired without great difficulty. Add to this, that
the Romans, fighting for their country and their children, never suffer
their ardor to be slackened ; but persist with the same steady spirit till
they become superior to their enemies. From hence it happens, like-
wise, that even in actions upon the sea, the Romans, though inferior to
the Carthaginians, as we have already observed, in naval knowledge and
experience, very frequently obtain success through the mere bravery
of their forces. For though in all such contests a skill in .maritime
affairs must be allowed to be of the greatest use ; yet, on the other hand,
the valor of the troops that are engaged is no less effectual to draw the
victory to their side.
Now the people of Italy are by nature superior to the Carthaginians
and the Africans, both in bodily strength, and in courage. Add to this,
that they have among them certain institutions by which the young
men are greatly animated to perform acts of braver}'. It will be sum"-
188 INSTITUTIONS
cient to mention one of these, as a proof of the attention that is shewn
by the Roman government, to infuse such a spirit into the citizens
as shall lead them to encounter every kind of danger for the sake of ob-
taining reputation in their country. When any illustrious person dies,
he is carried in procession with the rest of the funeral pomp, to the
rostra in the forum; sometimes placed conspicuous in an upright
posture; and sometimes, though less frequently, reclined. And while
the people are all standing round, his son, if he has left one of suf-
ficient age, and who is then at Rome, or, if otherwise, some person
of his kindred, ascends the rostra, and extols the virtues of the deceased,
and the great deeds that were performed by him in his life. By this
discourse, which recalls his past actions to remembrance, and places
them in open view before all the multitude, not those alone who were
sharers in his voctories, but even the rest who bore no part in his ex-
ploits, are moved to such sympathy of sorrow, that the accident seems
rather to be a public misfortune, than a private loss. He is then buried
with the usual rites; and afterwards an image, which both in features
and complexion expresses an exact resemblance of his face, is set up in
the most conspicuous part of the house, inclosed in a shrine of wood.
Upon solemn festivals, these images are uncovered, and adorned with
the greatest care. And when any other person of the same family dies,
they are carried also in the funeral procession, with a body added to
the bust, that the representation may be just, even with regard to size.
They are dressed likewise in the habits that belong to the ranks which
they severally filled when they were alive. If they were consuls or
praetors, in a gown bordered with purple: if censors, in a purple robe:
and if they triumphed, or obtained any similar honor, in a vest em-
broidered with gold. Thus appeared, they are drawn along in chariots
preceded by the rods and axes, and other ensigns of their former dignity.
And when they arrive at the forum, they are all .seated upon chairs of
ivory; and there exhibit the noblest objects that can be offered to youth-
ful mind, warmed with the love of virtue and of glory. For who can
behold without emotion the forms of so many illustrious men, thus liv-
ing, as it were, and breathing together in his presence? Or what spec-
tacle can be conceived more great and striking? The person also that
is appointed to harangue, when he has exhausted all the praises of the
deceased, turns his discourse to the rest, whose images are before him ;
and, beginning with the most ancient of them, recounts the fortunes and
the exploits of every one in turn. By this method, which renews con-
tinually the remembrance of men celebrated for their virtue, the fame
INSTITUTIONS IbS)
of every great and noble action become immortal. And the glory of
those, by whose services their country has been benefited, is rendered
famliar to the people, and delivered down to future timos. But the
chief advantage is, that by the hope of obtaining this honorable fame,
which is reserved for virtue, the young men are animated to sustain
all danger, in the cause of the common safety. For from hence it has
happened, that many among the Romans have voluntarily engaged in
single combat, in order to decide the fortune of an entire war. Many
also have devoted themselves to inevitable death ; some of them in battle,
to save the lives of other citizens ; and some in time of peace to rescue
the whole state from destruction. Others again, who have been in-
vested with the highest dignities have, in defiance of all law and custom?,
condemned their own sons to die ; showing greater regard to the ad-
vantage of their country, than to the bonds of nature, and the closest
ties of kindred. Very frequent are the examples of this kind, that are
recorded in the Roman story. I shall here mention one, as a signal
instance, and proof of the truth of all that I have affirmed. Horatius,
surnamed Codes, being engaged in combat with two enemies, at the
farthest extremity of the bridge that led into Rome across the Tiber,
and perceiving that many others were advancing fast to their assistance,
was apprehensive that they would force their way together into the city,
turning himself, therefore, to his companions that were behind him,
he called to them aloud, that should immediately retire and break the
bridge. While they were employed in this work, Horatius, covered over
with wounds, still maintained the post, and stopped the progress of the
enemy ; who were struck with his firmness and intrepid courage, even
more than with the strength of his resistance. And when the bridge
was broken, and the city secured from insult, he threw himself into the
river with his armor, and there lost his life as he had designed : having
preferred the safety of his country, and the future fame that was sure
to follow such an action, to his own present existence, and to the time
that remained for him to live. Such is the spirit, and such the emula-
tion of achieving glorious action, which the Roman institutions are
fitted to infuse into the minds of youth.
In things that regard the acquisition of wealth, the manners also,
and the customs of the Romans, are greatly preferable to those of the
Carthaginians. Among the latter, nothing is reputed infamous, that is
joined with gain. But among the former, nothing is held more base
than to be corrupted by gifts, or to covet an increase of wealth by means
that are unjust. For as much as they esteem the possession of
190 INSTITUTIONS
riches to be fair and honorable, so much, on the other hand, all those that
are amassed by unlawful arts, are viewed by them with horror and
reproach. The truth of this fact is clearly seen in the following in-
stance. Among the Carthaginians, money is openly employed to
obtain the dignities of the state: but all such proceeding is a capital
crime in Rome. As the rewards, therefore, that are proposed to virtue
in the two republics are so different, it cannot but happen, that the atten-
tion of the citizens to form their minds to virtuous actions must be also
different.
But among all the useful institutions, that demonstrate the
superior excellence of the Roman government, the most considerable
perhaps is the opinion which the people are taught to hold concerning
the gods : and that, which other men regard as an object of disgrace,
appears in my judgment to be the very thing by which this republic
chiefly is sustained. I mean, superstition : which is impressed with all
it terrors; and influences both the private actions of the citizens, and
the public administration also of the state, in a degree that can scarcely
be exceeded. This may appear astonishing to many. To me it is evi-
dent, that this contrivance was at first adopted for the sake of the multi-
tude. For if it were possible that a state could be composed of wise
men only, there would be no need, perhaps, of any such invention. But
as the people universally are fickle and inconstant, filled with irregular
desires, too precipitate in their passions, and prone to violence ; there is
no way left to restrain them, but by the dread of things unseen, and by
the pageantry of terrifying fiction. The ancients, therefore, acted not
absurdedly, nor without good reason, when they inculcated the notions
concerning the gods, and the belief of infernal punishments ; but much
more those of the present age are to be charged with rashness and ab-
surdity, in indeavoring to extirpate these opinions. For, not to men-
tion effects that flow from such an institution, if, among the Greeks, for
example, a single talent only be entrusted to those who have the man-
agement of any of the public money ; though they give ten written sure-
ties, with as many seals and twice as many witnesses, they are unable
to discharge the trusts reposed in them with integrity. But the Romans,
on the other hand, who in the course of their magistracies, and in
embassies, disperse the greatest sums, are prevailed on by the single
obligation of an oath to perform their duties with inviolable honesty.
And as, in other states, a man is rarely found whose hands are pure
from public robbery; so, among the Romans, it is no less rare to dis-
cover one that is tainted with this crime.
INSTITUTIONS 1»1
But all things arc subject to decay and change. This is a truth so
evident, and so demonstrated by the perpetual and the necessary force
of nature, that it needs no other proof. Now there are two ways by
which every kind of government is destroyed ; either by some acci-
dent that happens trom without, or some evil that arises within itself.
What the first will be is not always easy to foresee: but the latter is
certain and determinate. We have already shown what are the original
and what the secondary forms of government; and in what manner
also they are reciprocally converted each into the other. Whoever,
therefore, is able to connect the beginning with the end in this enquiry,
will be able also to declare with some assurance what will be the future
fortune of the Roman government. At least in my judgment nothing
is more easy. For when a state, after having passed with safety through
many and great dangers, arrives at the highest degree of power, and
possesses an entire and undisputed sovereignty ; it is manifest that the
long continuence of prosperity must give birth to costly and luxurious
manners, and that the minds of men will be heated with ambitious con-
test, and become too eager and aspiring in the pursuit of dignities.
And as these evils are continually increased, the desire of power and
rule, and the imagined ignominy of remaining in a subject state, will
first begin to work the ruin of the republic ; arrogance and luxury will
afterwards advance it : and in the end the change will be completed by
the people ; as the avarice of some is found to injure and oppress them,
and the ambition of others swells their vanity and poisons them with
flattering hopes. For then, being with rage, and following only the
dictates of their passions, they no longer will submit to any control,
or be contented with an equal share of the administration, in conjunction
with Iheir rulers ; but will draw to themselves the entire sovereignty
and supreme direction of all affairs. When this is done, the government
will assume indeed the fairest of all names, that of a free and popular
state ; but will, in truth, be the greatest of all evils, the government of
the multitude.
As we have thus sufficiently explained the constitution and the
growth of the Roman government; have marked the causes of that
greatness in which it now subsists ; and shown by comparison, in what
view it may be judged inferior, and in what superior, to other states ;
we shall here close this discourse. But as every skilful artist offers
some piece of work to public view, as a proof of his abilities : in the
same manner we also, taking some part of history that is connected
with the times from which we were led into this digression, and making1
192 INSTITUTIONS
a short recital of one single action, shall endeavor to demonstrate by
fact as well as words what was the strength, and how great the vigor,
which at that time were displayed by this republic.
When Hannibal, after the battle of Cannae, had taken prisoners
eight thousand of the Romans, who were left to guard the camp; he
permitted them to send a deputation to Rome, to treat of their ransom
and redemption. Ten persons, the most illustrious that were among
them, were appointed for this purpose: and the general, having first
commanded them to swear that they would return to him again, suf-
fered them to depart. But one of the number, as soon as they had
passed the intrenchment, having said that he had forgotten something,
went back into camp, took what he had left, and then continued his
journey with the rest; persuading himself that by his return he had
discharged his promise, and satisfied the obligation of the oath. When
they arrived at Rome, they earnestly entreated the senate not to envy
them the safety that was offered, but to suffer them to be restored to
their families, at the price of three minae for each prisoner, which was
the sum that Hannibal demanded ; that they were not unworthy of this
favor ; that they neither had through cowardice deserted their post in
battle, nor done anything that had brought dishonor upon the Roman
name; but that having been left to guard the camp, they had been
thrown by unavoidable necessity, after the destruction of the rest of
the army, into the power of the enemy. The Romans were at this time
weakened by repeated losses ; were deserted by almost every one of their
allies; and seemed even to expect that Rome itself would instantly be
attacked ; yet when they had heard the deputies, they neither were de-
terred by adverse fortune from attending to what was fit ana right, nor
neglected any of those measures that were necessary to the public
safety. But perceiving that the design of Hannibal in this proceeding
was both to acquire a large supply of money and at the same time to
check the ardor of his enemies in battle, by opening to their view the
means of safety, even though they should be conquered, they were so
far from yielding to this request, that they showed no regard either
to the distressed condition of their fellow citizens, or to the services
that might be expected from the prisoners : but resolved to disappoint
the hopes and frustrate the intentions of this general, by rejecting all
terms of ransom. They made a law also, by which it was declared
that the soldiers that were left must either conquer or must die; and
that no other hope of safety was reserved for them, in case that they
were conquered. After this determination they dismissed the nine
THE AMPHITHEATRE AT ROME
IN?
- otai of one single action, shall endeavor to d :e by
••!*•• u wrfl us words what was the strength, and how g:
When Hannibal, after the battle of Cannae, had taken
•m;ht thousand of the Romans, who were left to guard the camp; he
,>ertniue<! them to send a deputation to Rome, to treat of their ransom
*od redonj/tion. Ten persons, the most illustrious that were among
them, were appointed for this purpose: and the general, having first
command* it them to swear that they would return to him again, suf-
fered them to depart But one of the number, as soon as they had
passed tl;«- iwrenchnjcnt, having said that he had forgotten something,
went back >'k what he had left, and then continued his
jounv:-,
discharge-^
they arr.<.
them ih« •«'
their f,.n i:;.
TA 3HTAHHTIHHMA 3HT
•vi rt deserted by almost every one of their
allies; au<J niuvt'-cven to expect that Rome itself would instantly be
attacked . \ct when they had heard the deputies, they neither were de-
terred by adverse fortune from attending to what was fit and right, nor
neglected any of those measures that were necessary to the public
safety. But perceiving that the. design i la^niba! in this proc-
was both to acquire a large wppK r,
check the ardor ;/f ins cncnnen •; V-3U-. »»> opening ••>
means of safety, even though thrv *hi .•»•'•'. •
far from yielding to this re-^t «•> ,
to the distressed <. •• • ** •'. tt.^-r
that might be expect*. • •:• j
the hopes and frustrate the intenti
temu of ransom. They made a law also, clared
that (S« soldiers that were left must cither must die; and
hope of safety was reserved for :
<rd. After this determination th the.nin«
INSTITUTIONS 193
deputies, who, on account of their oath were, willing to return, and
taking the other, who had endeavored to elude by sophistry what he
had sworn, they sent him bound back to the enemy ; so that Hannibal
was much less filled with joy from having vanquished the Romans in
the field, than he was struck with terror and astonishment at the firm-
ness and magnanimity that appeared in their deliberations.
THE GROWTH OF LUXURY
(FOR THE GROWTH of luxury under the Republic see also the sump-
tuary and Baccahanalian laws, the account of Gracchus, etc., under the
Development of the Roman Constitution and Laws.)
THE PUBLIC GROUNDS FOR THE OVERTHROW OF THE
REPUBLIC
THESE were the motives secretly existing with the chieftains ; but
there were public grounds for the warfare, which have ever over-
whelmed mighty nations. For when, the world subdued, Fortune in-
troduced wealth too great, and the manners gave way before prosperity,
and booty and the spoils of the enemy induced luxurious habits; no
moderation was there in gold or in houses ; hunger, too, disdained the
tables of former times ; dresses hardly suitable for the matrons to wear,
the males seized hold upon ; poverty fruitful in men was shunned : and
that was fetched from the entire earth by means of which each nation
falls. Then did they join the lengthened boundaries of the fields, and
the eoctended lands once turned up by the hard ploughshare of Camillus,
and which had submitted to the ancient mattocks of the Curii, lay far
and wide beneath the charge of husbandmen unknown to their em-
ployers.
This was not the people whom tranquil peace might avail, whom
its own liberty might satisfy with arms unmoved. Thence arose ready
broils, and the contemptible wickHness which poverty could prompt;
and the great honor, and one worthy to be sought with the sword, to
194 INSTITUTIONS
have been able to do more than one's own country ; might, too, was the
measure of right ; hence laws and decrees of the people constrained, and
tribunes confounding their rights with consuls. Hence the Fasces
snatched up at a price, and the populace itself the vendor of its own
applause, and canvassing fatal to the city, bringing round the annual
contests on the venal Plain of Mars; hence devouring usury, and inter-
est greedy for each moment, and credit shaken, and warfare profitable
to the many. — Lucan, Pharsalia, I.
LUXURY IN THE TIME OF TIBERIUS
Caius Sulpicius and Decimus Haterius were the next consuls.
Their year was exempt from disturbances abroad ; but at home some
severe measures were apprehended against luxury, which was carried
beyond all bounds in every thing which involved a profuse expenditure.
But the more pernicious instances of extravagance were covered, as the
cost was generally a secret ; while from the sums spent in gluttony and
revelry, as they were the subject of daily animadversion, apprehensions
were raised of some severe corrective from a prince who observed him-
self the ancient parsimony. For, Caius Bibulus having begun the
complaint, the other aediles took it up, and declared "that the sumptuary
laws were despised ; the pomp and expense of plate and entertainments,
in spite of restraints, increased daily, and by moderate penalties the evil
could not be stopped." This grievance thus represented to the senate
was by them referred entire to the emperor. Tiberius having long
weighed with himself whether such propensities to prodigality could be
stemmed, — whether the stemming it would not bring heavier evils upon
the public, — how ignominious it would be to attempt what could not be
effected, all which could only be effected by the disgrace and degrada-
tion of the most illustrious citizens, wrote at last to the senate in this
manner : —
"In other matters, conscript fathers, perhaps it might be more ex-
pedient for you to consult me in the senate, and for me to declare there
what I judge for the public weal ; but in the debate on this affair it was
best that my eyes were withdrawn, lest, while you marked the coun-
tenances and trepidation of individuals charged with extravagant lux-
ury, I, too, should have observed them, and as it were caught them in it.
Had the vigilant aediles first asked counsel of me, I know not whether
I should not have advised them rather to wink at overpowering^ and
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inveterate corruptions, than only make it manifest what enormities are
too strong for us ; but they in truth have done their duty, as I would
have all other magistrates fulfill theirs. But for myself, it is neither
commendable to be silent, nor yet to speak out, since I neither bear the
character of aedile, praetor, or consul; something still greater and
higher is required of a prince. Every one is ready to assume to himself
the credit of whatever is well done, while upon the prince alone are
thrown the miscarriages of all. But what is it that I am first to pro-
hibit, what excess retrench to the ancient standard? Am I to begin
with that of our country seats, spacious without bounds ; and with the
number of domestics, from various countries ? or with the quantity of
silver and gold ? or with the pictures, and statues of brass, the wonders
of art? or with vestments, promiscuously worn by men and women?
or with what is peculiar to the women — those precious stones, — for the
purchase of which our coin is carried into foreign or. hostile nations?
"Nor am I ignorant that at entertainments and in parties these
excesses are censured, and a regulation is demanded ; and yet, if an
equal law were made, if equal penalties were prescribed, these very cen-
sors would loudly complain, 'that the state was utterly overturned, that
every illustrious house was menaced with ruin, and that every citizen
was exposed to criminal informations.' And yet, as bodily diseases
grown inveterate and strengthened by time, can not be checked but by
potent and violent remedies, so the morbid fire which rages in the mind,
corrupted and corrupting, is not to be quenched but by remedies equally
strong as its own flaming lusts. So many laws made by our ancestors,
so many added by the deified Augustus ; the former being lost in obliv-
ion, and (which is more heinous) the latter in contempt, have only
rendered luxury more secure ; for when we covet a thing yet unforbid-
den, we are apt to fear that it may be forbidden ; but when once we can
with impunity overleap prohibited bounds, there remains afterward no
fear for shame. Why then did parsimony prevail of old? It was be-
cause every one was a law to himself — it was because we were then the
citizens of one city ; nor afterward, while our dominion was confined to
Italy, had we the same incentives to voluptuousness. By foreign con-
quests we learned to waste the property of others, and by civil wars to
consume our own. How small is the evil of which the aediles warn us !
how lightly does it weigh in the balance with others ! It is wonderful
that nobody lays before the senate that Italy stands in need of foreign
supplies; that the lives of the Roman people are daily exposed to the
mercy of uncertain seas and tempests ; were it not for our supplies from
196 INSTITUTIONS
the provinces — supplies by which the masters, and their slaves, and
their estates, are maintained — will our groves, forsooth, and villas
maintain us ? This duty, conscript fathers, devolves upon the prince ;
and if it were neglected, the utter ruin of the state would follow. The
remedies for the other maladies are all within our own breasts : some of
us shame will reclaim, — necessity will mend the poor, satiety the rich.
Or if any of the magistrates, from a confidence in his own strictness
of principle and energy, will undertake to stem the progress of so great
an evil, he has my praises, and my acknowledgement that he disburdens
me of part of my labors; but if their will is merely to declaim against
abuses, and when they have gained applause for the same leave me to
bear the odium of proposing the measures they recommend, believe me,
conscript fathers, I, too, am not fond of giving offense ; and though I
am content to encounter heavy, and for the most part unmerited
animosities, for the good of the commonwealth, I am justified in depre-
cating such as are uncalled for and superfluous, and can be of no service
either to me or to yourselves."
The senate, upon reading the emperor's letter, declined interfering
in an affair of this nature, and«sent it back to the sediles ; and the luxury
of the table which, from the battle of Actium to the revolution by which
Galba obtained the empire, a space of a hundred years, was practiced
with the most costly profusion, began then gradually to decline. The
causes of this change I would investigate. Formerly, noble families
who were distinguished for opulence or the splendor of their fame, fre-
quently fell into decay from a passion for magnificence : for even then
it was allowed to court the good graces of the Roman people, the allies
and potentates, and to be courted by them : each .was distinguished for
populartiy and the number of clients, in proportion to his affluence, the
splendor of his house, and the figure he made. But when tyrants shed
the blood of their subjects, and the greatness of reputation formed a
motive for destruction, those who escaped grew wiser: besides, men
of no family frequently chosen senators from the municipal towns, from
the colonies, and even from the provinces, brought with them the fru-
gality they observed at home ; and though, by good fortune or industry,
many of them grew wealthy as they grew old, yet their former habits
- continued. But Vespasian was the great promoter of parsimonious
living, himself a pattern of primitive strictness in his person and table :
hence the compliance of the public with the manners of the prince ; and
the gratification of imitating him, operated more powerfully than the
terror of laws and all their penalties. Or perhaps all human things go
INSTITUTIONS Itt
a certain round, and there are revolutions in manners analogous to the
vicissitudes of the seasons : nor indeed have our ancestors excelled u»
in all things ; our own age has produced many bright examples in moral
conduct and the arts, to excite the emulation of posterity. But for
these we are indebted to our forefathers : and may these contests for
pre-eminence in virtue continue. — Tacitus, Annals, III. 52-55.
EXTRAVAGANCE IN THE TIME OF NERO
Nero himself, to make it believed that he enjoyed himself nowhere
so much as at Rome, caused banquets to be prepared in the public
places, and used the whole city as his house. Remarkable above all
others for the display of luxury and the noise it made in the world was
the feast given by Tigellinus, which I will describe by way of specimen,
that I may not have to repeat the instances of similar prodigality. For
this purpose, he built, in the lake of Agrippa, a raft which supported
the banquet, which was moved to and fro by other vessels, drawing it
after them : the vessels were striped with gold and ivory, and rowed
by bands of pathics, who were ranged according to their age, and
accomplishments in the science of debauchery. He had procured fowl
and venison from remote regions, with sea-fish even from the ocean :
upon the margin of the lake were erected brothels, filled with ladies of
distinction: over against them naked harlots were exposed to view:
now, were beheld obscene gestures and motions ; and as soon as dark-
ness came on, all the neighboring groves and circumjacent dwellings
resounded with music, and glared with lights. Nero wallowed in all
sorts of defilements, lawful and unlawful; and seemed to leave no
atrocity which could add to his pollution, till a few days afterward, he
married, as a woman, one of this contaminated herd, named Pytha-
goras, with all the solemnities of wedlock ; the Roman emperor put on
the nuptial vail; the augurs, the portion, the bridal bed, the nuptial
torches, were all seen ; in fine, every thing exposed to view which, even
in a female, is covered by the night.
There followed a dreadful disaster ; whether fortuitously, or by the
wicked contrivance of the prince, is not determined, for both are as-
serted by historians ; but of all the calamities which ever befell this city
from the rage of fire, this was the most terrible and severe. It broke
out in that part of the Circus which is contiguous to mounts Palatine
and Coelius where, by reason of shops in which were kept such goods
108 INSTITUTIONS
as minister aliment to fire, the moment it commenced it acquired
strength, and being accelerated by the wind, it spread at once through
the whole extent of the Circus : for neither were the houses secured by
inclosures, nor the temples environed with walls, nor was there any
other obstacle to intercept its progress ; but the flame, spreading every
way impetuously, invaded first the lower regions of the city, then
mounted to the higher ; then again ravaging the lower, it baffled every
effort to extinguish it, by the rapidity of its destructive course, and
from the liability of the city to conflagration, in consequence of the
narrow and intricate alleys, and the irregularity of the streets in
ancient Rome. Add to this, the wailings of terrified women, the infirm
condition of the aged, and the helplessness of childhood : such as strove
to provide for themselves, and those who labored to assist others ; these
dragging the feeble, those waiting for them ; some hurrying, others lin-
gering; altogether created a scene of universal confusion and embar-
rassment : and while they looked back upon the danger in their rear,
they often found themselves beset before, and on their sides : or if they
had escaped into the quarters adjoining, these too were already seized
by the devouring flames ; even the parts which they believed remote
anH exempt, were found to be in the. same distress. At last, not know-
ing what to shun, or where to seek sanctuary, they crowded the streets,
and lay along in the open fields. Some, from the loss of their whole
substance, even the means of their daily sustenance, others, from affec-
tion for their relations, whom they had not been able to snatch from
the flames, suffered themselves to perish in them, though they had
opportunity to escape. Neither dared any man offer to check the fire :
so repeated were the menaces of many who forbade to extinguish it ;
and because others openly threw fire-brands, with loud declarations
"that they had one who authorized them ;" whether they did it that
they might plunder with the less restraint, or in consequence of orders
given.
Nero, who was at that juncture sojourning at Antium, did not
return to the city till the fire approached that quarter of his house which
connected the palace with the gardens of Maecenas ; nor could it, how-
ever, be prevented from devouring the house and palace, and every
thing around. But for the relief of the people, thus destitute, and driven
from their dwellings, he opened the field of Mars and the monumental
edifices erected by Agrippa, and even his own gardens. He likewise
reared temporary houses for the reception of the forlorn multitude:
and from Ostia and the neighboring cities, were brought, up the river,
INSTITUTIONS 1W
household necessaries; and the price of grain was reduced to three
sesterces the measure. All which proceedings, though of a popular
character, were thrown away, because a rumor had become universally
current, "that at the very time when the city was in flames, Nero,
going on the stage of his private theater, sang, 'The Destruction of
Troy,' assimilating the present disaster to that catastrophe of ancient
times."
At length, on the sixth day, the conflagration was stayed at the
foot of Esquiliae, by pulling down an immense quantity of buildings, so
that an open space, and, as it were, void air, might check the raging
element by breaking the continuity. But ere the consternation had
subsided, the fire broke out afresh, with not little violence, but in regions
more spacious, and therefore with less destruction of human life: but
more extensive havoc was made of the temples, and the porticos dedi-
cated to amusement. This conflagration, too, was the subject of more
censorious remark, as it arose in the /Emilian possessions of Tigellinus :
and Nero seemed to aim at the glory of building a new city, and calling
it by his own name : for, of the fourteen sections into which Rome is
divided, four were still standing entire, three were leveled with th*»
ground, and in the seven others there remained only here and there a
few remnants of houses, shattered and half consumed.
It were no very easy task to recount the number of tenements and
temples which were lost: but the following, most venerable for anti-
quity and sanctity, were consumed : that dedicated by Servius Tullius
to the Moon ; the temple and great altar consecrated by Evander the
Arcadian to Hercules while present ; the chapel vowed by Romulus to
Jupiter Stator ; the palace of Numa, with the temple of Vesta, and in it
the tutelar gods of Rome. Moreover, the treasures accumulated by so
many victories, the beautiful productions of Greek artists, ancient writ-
ings of authors celebrated for genius, and till then preserved entire,
were consumed : and though great was the beauty of the city, in its
renovated form, the older inhabitants remembered many decorations of
the ancient which could not be replaced in the modern city. There were
some who remarked that the commencement of this fire showed itself
on the fourteenth before the calends of July, the dav on which the
Senones set fire to the captured city. Others carried their investigation
so far as to determine that an equal number of years, months, and days
intervened between the two fires.
To proceed : Nero appropriated to his own purpose the ruins of
his country, and founded upon them a palace ; in which the old-fash-
200 INSTITUTIONS
ioned, and, in those luxurious times, common ornaments of gold and
precious stones, were not so much the objects of attraction as lands and
lakes ; in one part, woods like vast deserts ; in another part, open spaces
and expansive prospects. The projectors and superintendents of this
plan were Severus and Celer, men of such ingenuity and daring enter-
prise as to attempt to conquer by art the obstacles of nature, and fool
away the treasures of the prince : they had even undertaken to sink a
navigable canal from the lake Avernus to the mouth of the Tiber, over
an arid shore, or through opposing mountains : nor indeed does there
occur any thing of a humid nature for supplying water, except the
Pomptine marshes ; the rest is either craggy rock or a parched soil :
and had it even been possible to break through these obstructions, the
toil had been intolerable, and disproportioned to the object. Nero, how-
ever, who longed to achieve things that exceeded credibility, exerted all
his might to perforate the mountains adjoining to Avernus : and to this
day there remain traces of his abortive project.
But the rest of the old site not occupied by his palace, was laid out,
not as after the Gallic fire, without discrimination and regularity, but
with the lines of streets measured out, broad spaces left for transit, the
height of the buildings limited, open areas left, and porticos added to
protect the front of the clustered dwellings : these porticos Nero en-
gaged to rear at his own expense, and then to deliver to each proprietor
the areas about them cleared. He moreover proposed rewards pro-
portioned to every man's rank and private substance, and fixed a day
within which, if their houses, single and clustered, were finished, they
should receive them : he appointed the marshes of Ostia for a recept-
acle of the rubbish, and that the vessels which has conveyed grain up
the Tiber should return laden with rubbish; that the buildings them-
selves should be raised a certain portion of their height without beams,
and arched with stone from the quarries of Gabii or Alba, that stone
being proof against fire : that over the water springs, which had been
improperly intercepted by private individuals, overseers should be
placed, to provide for their flowing in greater abundance, and in a
greater number of places, for the supply of the public: that every
housekeeper should have in his yard means for extinguishing fire;
neither should there be party-walls, but every house should be inclosed
by its own walls. These regulations, which were favorably received, in
consideration of their utility, were also a source of beauty to the new
city : yet some there were who believed that the ancient form was more
conducive to health, as from the narrowness of the streets and the
INSTITUTIONS 201
height of the buildings the rays of the sun were more excluded ; whereas
now, the spacious breadth of the streets, without any shade to protect
it, was more intensely heated in warm weather.
Such were the provisions made by human counsels. The gods
were next addressed with expiations; and recourse had to the Sibyl's
books. By admonition from them to Vulcan, Ceres, and Proserpina,
supplicatory sacrifices were made, and Juno propitiated by the matrons,
first in the Capitol, then upon the nearest shore, where, by water drawn
from the sea, the temple and image of the goddess were besprinkled ;
the ceremony of placing the goddess in her sacred chair, and her vigil,
were celebrated by ladies who had husbands. But not all the relief that
could come from man, not all the bounties that the prince could bestow,
nor all the atonements which could be presented to the gods, availed to
relieve Nero from the infamy of being believed to have ordered the
conflagration. Hence, to suppress the rumor, he falsely charged with
the guilt, and punished with the most exquisite tortures, the persons
commonly called Christians, who were hated for their enormities.
Christus, the founder of that name, was put to death as a criminal by
Pontius Pilate, procurator of Judea, in the reign of Tiberius : but the
pernicious superstition, repressed for a time, broke out again, not only
through Judea, where the mischief originated, but through the city of
Rome also, whither all things horrible and disgraceful flow, from all
quarters, as to a common receptacle, and where they are encouraged.
Accordingly, first those were seized who confessed they were Chris-
tians: next, on their information, a vast multitude were convicted, not
so much on the charge of burning the city, as of hating the human race.
And in their deaths they were also made the subjects of sport, for they
were covered with the hides of wild beasts, and worried to death by
dogs, or nailed to crosses, or set fire to, and when day declined, burned
to serve for nocturnal lights. Nero offered his own gardens for that
spectacle, and exhibited a Circensian game, indiscriminately mingling
with the common people in the habit of a charioteer, or else standing
in his chariot. Whence a feeling of compassion arose toward the suf-
ferers, though guilty and deserving to be made examples of by capital
punishment, because they seemed not to be cut off for the public good,
but victims to the ferocity of one man.
In the mean time, in order to supply money, all Italy was pillaged,
the provinces ruined ; both the people in alliance with us, and the states
which are called free. Even the gods were not exempt from plunder on
this occasion, their temples in the city despoiled, and all the gold con-
V 3-J
202 INSTITUTIONS
veyed away, which the Roman people, in every age, either in gratitude
for triumphs, or in fulfillment of vows, had consecrated, in times of
prosperity, or in seasons of dismay. Through Greece and Asia, in-
deed, the gifts were carried off; Acratus and Secundus Carinas being
sent into those provinces for the purpose: the former, Nero's f reed-
man, a prompt instrument in any iniquity ; the other, acquainted with
Greek learning, so far as relates to lip-knowledge, but unadorned with
virtuous accomplishments. Of Seneca it was reported, "that to avert
from himself the odium of this sacrilege, he prayed to retire to a seat
of his, remote from Rome, and being refused, feigned indisposition, as
though his nerves were affected, and confined himself to his chamber."
Some authors have recorded, "that a freedman of his, named Cleonicus,
had, by the command of Nero, prepared poison for his master, who
escaped it, either from the discovery made by the freedman, or from
the caution inspired by his own apprehensions, as he supported nature
by a diet perfectly simple, satisfying the cravings of hunger by wild
fruits, and the solicitations of thirst from the running brook." — Tacitus,
Annals, XV. 37-45.
ROME IN THE FOURTH CENTURY A. D.
BY AMMIANUS MARCELLINUS
Ammianus Marcellinus was born in Antioch, Syria, in the first
quarter of the fourth century A. D. His family was probably a noble
one. He was in the service of Constantius 350 A. D., and went under
Julian to the war in Persia. He afterward left the army and spent the
last years of his life in Rome, writing a history of the empire, the first
one-third of which is lost. The remainder is reliable and of great value
as a source of information on the period it covers.
We give his description of the life of the time at Rome. Any one
following our accounts of habits and morals at Rome, will see that lux-
ury first began to loosen their severity at the close of the Punic wars,
that vice reigned supreme during the hundred years following the Civil
war, that the customs of the century until the death of Aurelius were
pure, and that the fault of the last centuries of the empire was that of
over-refinement and degenerate fastidiousness rather than of such gross
vice as Nero's or Caligula's.
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THE ACCOUNTS BY MARCELLINUS
2. And since I think it likely that foreigners who may read this
account (if, indeed, any such should meet with it) are likely to wonder
how is it that, when my history has reached the point of narrating what
was done at Rome, nothing is spoken of but seditions, and shops, and
cheapness, and other similarly inconsiderable matters, I will briefly
touch upon the causes of this, never intentionally departing from the
strict truth.
3. At the time when Rome first rose in mundane brilliancy — that
Rome which was fated to last as long as mankind shall endure, and to
be increased with a sublime progress and growth — virtue and fortune,
though commonly at variance, agreed with a treaty of eternal peace,
as far as she was concerned. For if either of them had been wanting
to her, she would never have reached her perfect and complete
supremacy.
4. Her people, from its very earliest infancy to the latest moment
of its youth, a period which extends over about three hundred years,
carried on a variety of wars with the natives around its walls. Then,
when it arrived at its full-grown manhood, after many and various
labors in war, it crossed the Alps and the sea, till, as youth and man,
it had carried the triumphs of victory into every country in the world.
5. And now that it is declining into old age, and often owes its
victories to its mere name, it has come to a more tranquil time of life.
Therefore the venerable city, after having bowed down the haughty
necks of fierce nations, and given laws to the world, to be the founda-
tions and eternal anchors of liberty, like a thrifty parent, prudent and
rich, intrusted to the Caesars, as to its own children, the right of govern-
ing their ancestral inheritance.
6. And although the tribes were indolent, and the countries peace-
ful, and although there are no contests for votes, but the tranquility of
the age of Numa has returned, nevertheless, in every quarter of the
world Rome is still looked upon as the mistress and queen of the earth,
and the name of the Roman people is respected and venerated.
7. But this magnificent splendor of the assemblies and councils of
the Roman people is defaced by the inconsiderate levity of a few, who
never recollect where they have been born, but who fall away into error
and licentiousness, as if a perfect impunity were granted to vice. For as
the lyric poet Simonidea teaches us, the man who would live happily in
204 INSTITUTIONS
accordance with perfect reason, ought above all things to have a glorious
country.
8. Of these men, some thinking that they can be handed down to
immortality by means of statues, are eagerly desirous of them, as if they
would obtain a higher reward from brazen figures unendowed with
sense than from a consciousness of upright and honorable actions ; and
they even are anxious to have them plated over with gold, a thing
which is reported to have been first done in the instance of Acilius
Glabrio, who by his wisdom and valor had subdued King Antiochus.
But how really noble a thing it is to despise all these inconsiderable and
trifling things, and to bend one's attention to the long and toilsome
steps of true glory, as the poet of Ascrea has sung, and Cato the Censor
has shown by his example. For when he was asked how it was that
while many nobles had statues he had none, he replied, "I had rather
that good men should marvel how it was that I did not earn one, than
(what would be a heavier misfortune) inquire how it was that I had
obtained one."
9. Others place the height of glory in having a coach higher than
usual, or splendid apparel ; and so toil and sweat under a vast burden
of cloaks, which are fastened to their necks by many clasps, and blow
about from the excessive fineness of the material ; showing a desire, by
the continual wriggling of their bodies, and especially by the waving of
the left hand, to make their long fringes and tunics, embroidered in
multiform figures of animals with threads of various colors, more con-
spicuous.
10. Others, with not any one asking them, put on a feigned sever-
ity of countenance, and extol their patrimonial estates in a boundless
degree, exaggerating the yearly produce of their fruitful fields, which
they boast of possessing in numbers from east to west, being
forsooth ignorant that their ancestors, by whom the greatness of Rome
was so widely extended, were not eminent for riches; but through a
course of dreadful wars overpowered by their valor all who were op-
posed to them, though differing but little from the common soldiers
either in riches or in their mode of life, or in the costliness of their
garments.
11. This is how it happened that Valerius Publicola was buried
by the contributions of his friends, and the destitute wife of Regulus
was, with her children, supported by the aid of the friends of her hus-
band, and that the daughter of Scipio had a dowry provided for her out
of the public treasury, the other nobles being ashamed to see the beautj
INSTITUTIONS 205
of this full-grown maiden, while her moneyless father was so long
absent on the service of his country.
12. But now if you, as an honorable stranger, should enter the
house of any one well off, and on that account full of pride, for the
purpose of saluting him, at first, indeed, you will be hospitably received,
as though your presence had been desired ; and after having had many
questions put to you, and having been forced to tell a number of lies,
you will wonder, since the man never had seen you before, that one of
high rank should pay such attention to you, who are but an unimportant
individual ; so that by reason of this as a principal source of happiness,
you begin to repent of not having come to Rome ten years ago.
13. And when relying on this affability you do the same thing the
next day, you will stand waiting as one utterly unknown and unex-
pected, while he who yesterday encouraged you to repeat your visits,
counts upon his fingers who you 'can be, marveling, for a long time,
whence you come, and what you want. But when at length you are
recognized and admitted to his acquaintance, if you devote yourself
to the attention of saluting him for three years consecutively, and after
this intermit your visits for an equal length of time, then if you return
to repeat a similar course, you will never be questioned about your
absence any more than if you had been dead, and you will waste your
whole life in submitting to court the humors of this blockhead.
14. But when those long and unwholesome banquets, which are
indulged in at certain intervals, begin to be prepared, or the distribution
of the usual dole-baskets takes place, then it is discussed with anxious
deliberation whether when those to whom a return is due are to be
entertained, it is proper to invite also a stranger ; and if, after the matter
has been thoroughly sifted, it is determined that it may be done, that
person is preferred who waits all night before the houses of charioteers,
or who professes a skill in dice, or pretends to be acquainted with some
peculiar secrets.
15. For such entertainers avoid all learned and sober men as un-
profitable and useless; with this addition, that the nomenclators also,
who are accustomed to make a market of these invitations and of similar
favors, selling them for bribes, do for gain thrust in mean and obscure
men at these dinners.
16. The whirlpool of banquets, and the various allurements of
luxury, I omit, that I may not be too prolix, and with the object of
passing on to this fact, that some people, hastening on without fear of
danger, drive their horses, as if they were post-horses, with a regular
206 INSTITUTIONS
license, as the saying is, through the wide streets of the city, over the
roads paved with flint, dragging behind them large bodies of slaves
like bands of robbers; not leaving at home even Sannia, as the comic
poet says.
17. And many matrons, imitating these men, gallop over every
quarter of the city with their heads covered, and in close carriages.
And as skillful conductors of battle place in the van their densest and
strongest battalions, then their light-armed troops, behind them the
darters, and in the extreme rear troops of reserve, ready to join in the
attack if necessity should arise; so, according to the careful arrange-
ments of the stewards of these city households, who are conspicuous
by wands fastened to their right hands, as if a regular watchword had
been issued from the camp, first of all, near the front of the carriage
march all the slaves concerned in spinning and working ; next to them
come the blackened crew employed in the kitchen ; then the whole body
of slaves promiscously mixed up with a gang of idle plebeians from the
neighborhood ; last of all, the multitude of eunuchs, beginning with the
old men and ending with the boys, pale and unsightly from the dis-
torted deformity of their features; so that whichever way one goes,
seeing troops of mutilated men, he will detest the memory of Semiramis,
that ancient queen who was the first person to castrate male youths of
tender age ; doing as it were a violence to nature, and forcing it back
from its appointed course, which at the very first beginning and birth
of the child, by a kind of secret law revealing the primitive fountains of
seed, points out the way of propagating posterity.
18. And as this is the case, those few houses which were formerly
celebrated for the serious cultivation of becoming studies, are now filled
with the ridiculous amusements of torpid indolence, re-echoing with
the sound of vocal music and the tinkle of flutes and lyres. Lastly, in-
stead of a philosopher, you find a singer; instead of an orator, some
teacher of ridiculous arts is summoned; and the libraries closed for
ever, like so many graves; organs to be played by water-power are
made ; and lyres of so vast a size, that they look like wagons ; and flutes,
and ponderous machines suited for the exhibitions of actors.
19. Last of all, they have arrived at such a depth of unworthiness,
that when, no very long time ago, on account of an apprehended scarcity
of food, the foreigners were driven in haste from the city; those who
practised liberal accomplishments, the number of whom was exceed-
ingly small, were expelled without a moment's breathing-time; yej the
followers of actresses, and all who at that time pretended to be of such
INSTITUTIONS 207
a class, were allowed to remain ; and three thousand dancing-girls had
not even a question put to them, but stayed unmolested with the mem-
bers of their choruses, and a corresponding number of dancing masters.
20. And wherever you turn your eyes, you may see a multitude
of women with their hair curled, who, as far as their age goes, might,
if they had married, been by this time the mothers of three children,
sweeping the pavements with their feet till they are weary, whirling
round in rapid gyrations, while representing innumerable groups and
figures which the theatrical plays contain.
21. It is a truth beyond all question, that, when at one time Rome
was the abode of all the virtues, many of the nobles, like the Lotophagi,
celebrated in Homer, who detained men by the deliciousness of their
fruit, allured foreigners of free birth by manifold attentions of courtesy
and kindness.
22. But now, in their empty arrogance, some persons look upon
everything as worthless which is born outside of the walls of the city,
except only the childless and unmarried. Nor can it be conceived with
what a variety of obsequious observance men without children are
courted at Rome.
23. And since among them, as is natural in a city so great as to
be the metropolis of the world, diseases attain to such an insurmountible
degree of violence, that all the skill of a physician is ineffectual even to
mitigate them ; a certain assistance and means of safety has been devised,
in the rule that no one should see a friend in such a condition, and to
a few precautionary measures a further remedy of sufficient potency
has been added, that men should not readmit to their houses servants
who have been sent to inquire how a man's friends who may have been
seized with an illness of this kind is, until they have cleansed and puri-
fied themselves in the bath. So that a taint is feared, even when it has
only been seen with the eyes of another.
24. But nevertheless, when these rules are observed thus strin-
gently, some person, if they be invited to a wedding, though the vigor
of their limbs be much diminished, yet, when gold is offered in the
hollow palm of the right hand, will go actively as far as Spolctum.
These are the customs of the nobles.
25. But of the lower and most indigent class of the populace some
spend the whole night in the wine shops. Some lie concealed in the
shady arcades of the theaters, which Catulus was in his aedilship the
first person to raise, in imitation of the lascivious manners of Campania,
or else they play at dice so eagerly as to quarrel over them, snuffing up
808 INSTITUTIONS
their nostrils and making unseemly noises by drawing back their breath
into their noses ; or (and this is their favorite pursuit of all others) from
sunrise to evening they stay gaping through sunshine or rain, examin-
ing in the most careful manner the most sterling good and bad qualities
of the charioteers and horses.
26. And it is very wonderful to see an innumerable multitude of
people with great eagerness of mind intent upon the event of the con-
tests in a chariot race. These pursuits, and others of like character,
prevent anything worth mentioning or important from being done at
Rome. Therefore we must return to our original subject — Ammianus
Marcellinus, XIV, 6
3. Ampelius succeeded to the government of the city; he also was
a man addicted to pleasure, a native of Antioch, and one who from hav-
ing been master of the offices was twice promoted to a proconsulship,
and sometime afterwards to that supreme rank, the prefecture. In
other respects he was a cheerful man, and one admirably suited to win
the favor of his people ; though sometimes over-severe, without being as
firm in his purposes as might have been wished. Had he been, he would
have corrected, though perhaps not effectually, the gluttonous and de-
bauched habits which prevailed; but, as it was, by his laxity of conduct,
he lost a glory which otherwise might have been enduring.
4. For he had determined that no wine-shop should be opened be-
fore the fourth hour of the day; and that none of the common people, be-
fore a certain fixed hour, should either warm water or expose dressed
meat for sale ; and that no one of respectable rank should be seen eating
in public.
5. Since these unseemly practices, and others still worse, owing
to long neglect and connivance, had grown so frequent that even Epi-
menides of Crete, if, according to the fabulous story, he could have
risen from the dead or returned to our times, would have been unable
by himself to purify Rome; such deep stains of incurable vices over-
whelmed it.
6. And in the first place we will speak of the faults of the nobles,
as we have already repeatedly done as far as our space permitted; and
then we will proceed to the faults of the common people, touching, how-
ever, only briefly and rapidly on either.
7. Some men, conspicuous for the illustriousness of their ancestry
as they think, give themselves immoderate airs, and call themselves
INSTITUTIONS 209
Reburri, and Fabunii, and Pagonii, and Gerioncs, Dalii, Tarracii, or
Perrasu, and other finely-sounding appellations, indicating the antiquity
of their family.
8. Some also are magnificent in silken robes, as if they were being
led to execution, or, to speak without words of so favorable an omen,
as if after the army had passed they were bringing up the rear, and
are followed by a vast troop of servants, with a din like that of a com-
pany of soldiers.
9. Such men when, while followed by fifty servants apiece, they
have entered the baths, cry out with threatening voice, "Where are my
people ?" And if they suddenly find out that any unknown female slave
has appeared, or any worn-out courtesan who has long been subservient
to the pleasures of the townspeople, they run up, as if to win a race,
and patting and caressing her with disgusting and unseemly blandish-
ments, they extol her, as the Parthians might praise Semiramis, Egypt
her Cleopatra, the Carians Artemisia, or the Palmyrene citizens Zenobia.
And men do this, whose ancestor, even though a senator, would have
been branded with a mark of infamy because he dared, at an unbecom-
ing time, kiss his wife in the presence of their common daughter.
10. Some of these, when any one meets and begins to salute them,
toss their heads like bulls preparing to butt, offering their flatterers their
knees or hands to kiss, thinking that quite enough for their perfect hap-
piness ; while they deem it sufficient attention and civility to a stranger
who may happen to have laid them under some obligation to ask him
what warm or cold bath he frequents, or what houses he lives in.
11. And while they are so solemn, looking upon themselves as
especial cultivators of virtue, if they learn that any one has brought in-
telligence that any fine horses or skilful coachmen are coming from
any place, they rush with as much haste to see them, examine them, and
put questions concerning them, as their ancestors showed on beholding
the twin-brothers Tyndaridae, when they filled the whole city with joy
by the announcement of that ancient victory.
12. A number of idle chatterers frequent their houses, and, with
various pretended modes of adulation, applaud every word uttered by
men of such high fortune ; resembling the parasites in a comedy, for
as they puff up bragging soldiers, attributing to them, as rivals of the
heroes of old, sieges of cities, and battles, and the death of thousands
of enemies, so these men admire the construction of the lofty pillars,
and the walls inlaid with stones of carefully chosen colors, and extol
these grandees with supernatural praises.
210 INSTITUTIONS
13. Sometimes scales are sent for at their entertainments to weigh
the fish, or the birds, or the dormice which are set on the table; and
then the size of them is dwelt on over and over again, to the great
weariness of those present, as something never seen before ; especially
when near thirty secretaries stand by, with tablets and memorandum
books, to record all these circumstances; so that nothing seems to be
wanting but a schoolmaster.
14. Some of them, hating learning as they hate poison, read Juve-
nal and Marius Maximus with tolerably careful study ; though, in their
profound laziness, they never touch any other volumes ; why, it does not
belong to my poor judgment to decide.
15. For, in consideration of their great glories and long pedigrees,
they ought to read a great variety of books ; in which, for instance, they
might learn that Socrates, when condemned to death and thrown into
prison, asked some one who was playing a song of the Greek poet Stesi-
chorus with great skill, to teach him also to do that, while it was still
in his power ; and when the musician asked him of what use this skill
could be to him, as he was to die the next day, he answered, "that I
may know something before I die."
1 6. And there are among them some who are such severe judges
of offenses, that if a slave is too long in bringing them hot water, they
will order him to be scourged with three hundred stripes; but should
he intentionally have killed a man, while numbers insist that he ought
to be unhesitatingly condemned as guilty, his master will exclaim,
"What can the poor wretch do ? What can one expect from a good-for-
nothing fellow like that ?" But should any one else venture to do any-
thing of the kind he would be corrected.
17. Their, ideas of civility are such that a stranger had better
kill a man's brother than send an excuse to them if he be asked to din-
ner ; for a senator fancies that he has suffered a terrible grievance, equal
to the loss of his entire patrimony, if any guest be absent, whom, after
repeated deliberations, he has once invited.
18. Some of them, if they have gone any distance to see their
estates in the country, or to hunt at a meeting collected for their amuse-
ment by others, think they have equalled the marches of Alexander the
Great, or of Caesar; or if they have gone in some painted boats from
Lake Avernus to Pozzuoli or Cajeta, especially if they have ventured
on such an exploit in warm weather. Where if, amid their golden fans,
a fly should perch on the silken fringes, or if a slender ray of the«sun
should have pierced through a hole in their awning, they complain
INSTITUTIONS 211
they were not born among the Cimmerians.
19. Then, when they come from the bath of Silvanus, or the
waters of Mamxa, which are so good for the health, after they come
out of the water, and have wiped themselves with cloths of the finest
linen, they open the presses, and take out of them robes so delicate as
to be transparent, selecting them with care, till they have got enough
to clothe eleven persons ; and at length, after they have picked out all
they choose, they wrap themselves up in them, and take the rings they
had given to their attendants to hold, that they might not be injured by
the damp ; and then they depart when their fingers are properly cooled.
20. Again, if any one having quitted the military service of the
emperor, has retired to his home (text mutilated).
21. Some of them, though not many, wish to avoid the name of
gamblers, and prefer to be called dice-players; the difference being
much the same as that between a thief and a robber. But this must be
confessed that, while all friendships at Rome are rather cool, those alone
which are engendered by dice are sociable and intimate, as if they had
been formed amid glorious exertions, and were firmly cemented by
exceeding affection ; to which it is owing that some of this class of
gamblers live in such harmony that you might think them the brothers
Quintilii. And so you may sometimes see a man of base extraction,
who knows all the secrets of the dice, as grave as Porcius Cato when he
met with a repulse which he had never expected nor dreamt of, when
a candidate for the praetorship, with affected solemnity and a serious
face, because at some grand entertainment or assembly some man of
proconsular rank has been preferred to himself.
22. Some lay siege of wealthy men, whether old or young, child-
less or unmarried, or even with wives and children ( for with such an
object no distinction is ever regarded by them), seeking by most mar-
velous tricks to allur them to make their wills; and then if, after ob-
serving all the forms of law, they bequeath to these persons what they
have to leave, being won over by them to this compliance, they speedily
die.
23. Another person, perhaps only in subordinate office, struts
along with his head up, looking with so slight and passing a glance upon
those with whom he was previously acquainted, that you might fancy
it must be Marcus Marcellus just returned from the capture of Syracuse.
24. Many among them deny the existence of a superior power in
heaven, and yet neither appear in public, dine, nor think that they can
bathe with any prudence, before they have carefully consulted an alma-
212 INSTITUTIONS
nac, and learnt where (for example) the planet Mercury is, or in what
portion of Cancer the moon is as she passes through the heavens.
25. Another man, if he perceives his creditor to be importunate
:n demanding a debt, flies to a charoteer who is bold enough to venture
on any audacious enterprise, and takes care that he shall be harassed
with dread of persecution as a poisoner ; from which he cannot be re-
leased without giving bail and incurring a very heavy expense. One
may add to this, that he includes under this head a debtor who is only
so through the engagements into which he has entered to avoid a prose-
cution, as if he were a real debtor, and that he never lets him go till he
has obtained the discharge of the debt.
26. On the other hand, a wife, who, as the old proverb has it,
hammers on the same anvil day and night, to compel her husband to
make his will, and then the husband is equally urgent that his wife shall
do the same. And men learned in the law are procured on each side,
the one in the bedchamber, and his opponent in the dining room, to draw
up counter-documents. And under their employ are placed ambiguous
interpreters of the contracts of their victims, who, on the one side,
promise with great liberality high offices, and the funerals of weathly
matrons ; and from these they proceed to the obsequies of the husbands,
giving hints that everything necessary ought to be prepared ; and (text
mutilated)* * as Cicero says, "Nor in the affairs of men do they under-
stand anything good, except what is profitable; and they love those
friends most (as they would prefer sheep) from whom they expect to
derive the greatest advantage."
27. And when they borrow anything, they are so humble and
cringing, you would almost think you were at a comedy, and seeing
Micon or Laches ; when they are constrained to repay what they have
borrowed, they become so turgid and bombastic that you would take
them for those descendants of Hercules, Cresphontes and Temenus.
This is enough to say of the senatorial order.
28. And let us come to the idle and lazy common people, among
whom some, who have not even got shoes, boast of high-sounding
names; calling themselves Cimessores, Statarii, Semicupae, Serapina, or
Cicimbricus, or Gluturiorus, Trulla, Lucanicus, Pordaca, or Salsula,
with numbers of other similar appellations. These men spend their
whole lives in drinking and gambling, and brothels, and pleasures, and
public spectacles ; and to them the Circus Maximus is their temple, their
home, their public assembly; in fact, their whole hope and desire.
•
29. And you may see in the form, and roads, and streets, and
INSTITUTIONS 213
places of meeting, knots of people collected, quarreling violently with
one another, and objecting to one another, and splitting themselves into
violent parties.
30. Among whom those who have lived long, having influence
by reason of their age, their gray hairs and wrinkles, are continually
crying out that the republic cannot stand, if in the contest which is
about to take place the skillful charioteer, who some individual backs,
is not foremost in the race, and does not dexteriously shave the turning-
post with the trace-horses.
31. And when there is so much ruinous carelessness, when the
wished-for day of the equestrian games dawns, before the sun has
visibly risen, they all rush out with headlong haste, as if with their
speed they would outstrip the very chariots which are going to race ;
while as to the event of the contest they are all torn asunder by oppo-
site wishes, and the greater part of them, through their anxiety, pass
sleepless nights.
32. From hence, if you go to some cheap theater, the actors on
the stage are driven off by hisses, if they have not taken the precaution
to conciliate the lowest of the people by gifts of money. And if there
should be no noise, then, in imitation of the people in the Tauric Cher-
sonese, they raise an outcry that the strangers ought to be expelled (on
whose assistance they have always relied for their principal support),
using foul and ridiculous expressions ; such as are at variance with the
pursuits and inclinations of that populace of old, whose many facetious
and elegant expressions are recorded by tradition and by history.
33. For these clever gentlemen have now devised a new method
of expressing applause, which is, at every spectacle to cry out to those
who appear at the end, whether they are couriers, huntsmen, or char-
ioteers— in short, to the whole body of actors, and to the magistrates,
whether of great or small importance, and even to nations, "It is to
your school that he ought to go." But what he is to learn there no one
can explain.
34. Among these men are many chiefly addicted to fattening them-
selves up to gluttony, who, following the scent of any delicate food,
and the shrill voices of the women who, from cockcrow, cry out with a
shrill scream, like so many peacocks, and gliding over the ground on
tiptoe, get an entrance into the halls, biting their nails while the dishes
are getting cool. Others fix their eyes intently on the tainted meat which
is being cooked, that you might fancy Democritus, with a number of
214 INSTITUTIONS
anatomists, was gazing into the entrails of sacrificed victims, in order to
teach posterity how best to relieve internal pains.
35. For the present this is enough to say of the affairs of the city;
now let us return to other events which various circumstances brought
to pass in the provinces. — Ammianus Marcellinus, XXVIII. 4.
CICERO
MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO was the eldest son of a "knightly," though
not noble, family. He was born 105 B. C. and was beheaded by
Antony's soldiers in 43 B. C.
The path open for political honors to a "new" man was through
the law, and at twenty-six, after a thorough Greek and Latin education,
Cicero pleaded his first case. The next year he successfully defended
Roscius against the favorite of Sulla, the dictator, and thought it best,
during the rest of Sulla's dictatorship to travel for education and health.
At thirty-two he was elected questor to Sicily, and because of his in-
tegrity while holding.this magistracy, was soon afterward chosen by the
Sicilians to prosecute Verres for extortion. He was curule aedile in
69 B. C., praetor urbanus in 66 B. C. In this year he supported Pompey
for the eastern command, and the two never quite ceased to be friends.
Cicero was consul in 63 B. C., and put down the conspiracy of Catiline.
Sulla's constitution had been gradually changing since his death, and
Cicero slowly came to side with the senate as against the plebs and to try
to carry the "knights" with him. He might have been a member of the
"First Triumvirate" but perhaps preferred the existing institutions to
such high-handed measures. In 58 B. C. he was exiled through the
effort of the demagogue Clodius, but was recalled the next year. When
the civil war broke out between Caesar and Pompey, Cicero tried to side
with neither, but at length joined Pompey's army in Epirus. After the
defeat at Pharsalia, Cicero, whom sickness had kept from the battle, re-
turned to Italy and sought pardon of Caesar.
When Caesar was assassinated four years later, Cicero saw visions
of the old republican government revived once more, and delivered his
216 CICERO
fierce phillipics against Antony, but upon the coalition of Octavius and
Antony, was proscribed by Antony and killed.
As a thinker, Cicero was somewhat of an eclectic. We give here
his argument for the natural basis of all law, his analysis of Roman re-
ligious and civil law, and discussion of the question of immortality.
PRINCIPLES OF LAW
IV. MARCUS — LET us, then, once more examine, before we come
to the consideration of particular laws, what is the power and nature of
law in general; lest, when we come to refer everything to it, we oc-
casionally make mistakes from the employment of incorrect language,
and show ourselves ignorant of the force of those terms which we ought
to employ in the definition of laws.
Quintus. — This is a very necessary caution, and the proper method
of seeking truth.
Marcus. — This, then, as it appears to me, has been the decision of
the wisest philosophers — that law was neither a thing to be contrived by
the genius of man, nor established by any decree of the people, but a cer-
tain eternal principle, which governs the entire universe wisely com-
manding what is right and prohibiting what is wrong. Therefore they
called that aboriginal and supreme law the mind of God, enjoining or
forbidding each separate thing in accordance with reason. On which
account it is, that this law, which the gods have bestowed upon the
human race, is so justly applauded. For it is the reason and mind of a
wise Being equally able to urge us to good or to deter us from evil.
Quintus. — You have, on more than one occasion, already touched
on this topic. But before you come to treat of the laws of nations, I wish
you would endeavor to explain the force and power of this divine and
celestial law, lest the torrent of custom should overwhelm our under-
standing, and betray us into the vulgar method of expression.
Marcus. — From our childhood we have learned, my Quintus, to call
such phrases as this, "that a man appeals to justice, and goes to law,"
and many similar expressions, law, but, nevertheless, we should under-
stand that these, and other similar commandments and prohibitions,
have sufficient power to lead us on to virtuous actions and to call us
CICERO 21{
away from vicious ones. Which power is not only far more ancient than
any existence of states and people, but is coeval with God himself, who
beholds and governs both heaven and earth. For it is impossible that
the divine mind can exist in a state devoid of reason ; and divine reason
must necessarily be possessed of a power to determine what is virtuous
and what is vicious. Nor, because it was nowhere written, that one man
should maintain the pass of a bridge against the enemy's whole army,
and that he should order the bridge behind him to be cut down, are we
therefore to imagine that the valiant Codes did not perform this great
exploit agreeably to the laws of nature and the dictates of true bravery.
Again, though in the reign of Tarquin there was no written law con-
cerning adultery, it does not therefore follow that Sextus Tarquinius did
not offend against the eternal law when he committed a rape on Lucre-
tia, daughter of Tricipitius. For, even then he had the light of reason
from the nature of things, that incites to good actions and dissuades
from evil ones ; and which does not begin for the first time to be a law
when it is drawn up in writing, but from the first moment that it exists.
And this existence of moral obligation is co-eternal with that of the
divine mind. Therefore, the true and supreme law, whose commands
and prohibitions are equally authoritative, is the right reason of the
Sovereign Jupiter.
V. Quintus. — I grant you, my brother, that whatever is just is
also at all times the true law ; nor can this true law either be originated
or abrogated by the written forms in which decrees are drawn up.
Marcus. — Therefore, as that Divine Mind, or reason, is the supreme
law, so it exists in the mind of the sage, so far as it can be perfected in
man. But with respect to civil laws, which are drawn up in various
forms, and framed to meet the occasional requirements of the people,
the name of law belongs to them not so much by right as by the favor
of the people. For men prove by some such arguments as the follow-
ing, that every law which deserves the name of a law, ought to be
morally good and laudable. It is clear, say they, that laws were orig-
inally made for the security of the people, for the preservation of states,
for the peace and happiness of society ; and that they who first framed
enactments of that kind, persuaded the people that they would write
and publish such laws only as should conduce to the general morality
and happiness, if they would receive and obey them. And then such
regulations, being thus settled and sanctioned, they justly entitled Laws.
From vhich we may reasonably conclude, that those who made unjusti-
fiable and pernicious eractments for the people, acted in a manner con-
V 3-14
218 CICERO
trary to their own promises and professions, and established anything
rather than laws, properly so called, since it is evident that the very
signification of the word law, comprehends the whole essence and
energy of justice and equity.
I would, therefore, interrogate you on this point, my Quintus, as
those philosophers are in the habit of doing. If a state wants something
for the want of which it is reckoned no state at all, must not that some-
thing be something good ?
Quintus. — A very great good.
Marcus. — And if a state has no law, is it not for that reason to be
reckoned no state at all ?
Quintus. — We must needs say so.
Marcus. — We must therefore reckon law among the very best
things.
Quintus. — I entirely agree with you.
Marcus. — If, then, in the majority of nations, many pernicious and
mischievous enactments are made, which have no more right to the
name of law than the mutual engagement of robbers, are we bound to
call them laws? For as we cannot call the recipes of ignorant and
unskillful empirics, who give poisons instead of medicines, the prescrip-
tions of a physician, so likewise we cannot call that the true law of a
people, of whatever kind it may be, if it enjoins what is injurious, let
the people receive it as they will. For law is the just distinction be-
tween right and wrong, made conformable to that most ancient nature
of all, the original and principal regulator of all things, by which the
laws of men should be measured, whether they punish the guilty or
protect and preserve the innocent.
VI. Quintus. — I quite understand you, and think that no law but
that of justice should either be proclaimed as one or enforced as one.
Marcus. — Then you regard as null and void the laws of Titius and
Apuleius, because they are unjust.
Quintus. — Yes ; and I would say the same of the laws of Livius.
Marcus. — You are right, and so much more the more, since a single
vote of the senate would be sufficient to abrogate them in an instant.
But that law of justice, the power of which I have explained, can never
be abrogated.
Marcus. — Certainly, if I could get you both to agree with me. But
Plato, that wisest of all men, that most dignified of all philosophers,
who was the first man who ever composed a treatise on a Common-
wealth, and afterwards a separate one on Laws, induces me to follow
CICERO Hi
his illustrious example, and to proclaim the praises of law, before I
begin to recite its regulations. Such, likewise, was the practice of
Zaleucus and Charondas, who wrote the laws which they gave their
cities, not for the sake of study or amusement, but for the benefit of
their country and their fellow-citizens. And imitating them, Plato
considered that it was the property of law, to persuade in some instances,
and not to compel everything by threats and violence.
Quintus. — What, do you venture to cite Zeleucus, when Timaeus
denies that he ever existed ?
Marcus. — But Theophrastus, an author, in my opinion, quite as
respectable, and as may think, much more so, corroborates my state-
ment. His fellow-citizens, too, my clients, the Locrians, commemor-
ate him ; but whether he was a real man or not, is of no great conse-
quence to our argument ; we are only speaking according to tradition.
VII. Let this, therefore, be a fundamental principle in all societies,
that the gods are the supreme lords and governors of all things — that
all events are directed by their influence, and wisdom, and Divine
power ; that they deserve very well of the race of mankind ; and that
they likwise know what sort of person every one really is ; that they
observe his actions, whether good or bad ; that they take notice with
what feelings and with what piety he attends to his religious duties, and
that they are sure to make a difference between the good and the
wicked.
For when once our minds are confirmed in these views, it will not
be difficult to inspire them with true and useful sentiments. For what
can be more true than that no man should be so madly presumptuous as
to believe that he has either reason or intelligence, while he does not
believe that the heaven and the world possess them likewise, or to think
that those things which he can scarcely comprehend by the greatest
possible exertion of his intellect, are put in motion without the agency
of reason?
In truth, we can scarcely reckon him a man, whom neither the regu-
lar courses of the stars, nor the alterations of day and night, nor the
temperature of the seasons, nor the productions that nature displays
for his use and enjoyment, urge to gratitude towards heaven.
And as those beings which are furnished with reason are incom-
parably superior to those which want it, and as we can not say, with-
out impiety, that anything is superior to the universal Nature, we must
therefore confess that divine reason is contained within her. And who
will dispute the utility of these sentiments, when he reflects how many
220 CICERO
cases of the greatest importance are decided by oaths ; how much the
sacred rites performed in making treaties tend to assure peace and tran-
quility ; and what numbers of people the fear of divine punishment has
reclaimed from a vicious course of life ; and how sacred the social rights
must be in a society where a firm persuasion obtains the immediate in-
tervention of the immortal gods, both as witnesses and judges of our
actions ? Such is the "preamble of the law," to use the expression of
Plato.
Quintus. — I understand you, my brother ; and I am greatly pleased
to find that you take a different view of the subject, and dwell upon
other points of it, than those which he selects, for nothing can less
resemble his opinions, than what you have just now asserted, even in
this preamble. The only matter in which you seem to me to imitate
him, is his style and language.
Marcus. — I wish, indeed, I did, but who is, or who ever will be
able to translate them, and, indeed, that is what I should do if I did
not wish to be altogether original. For what difficulty is there in stat-
ing the same doctrines as he does, translated from him almost word
for word?
Quintus. — I entirely agree with you; for as you have just re-
marked, your arguments ought to be entirely your own. Begin, then,
if you will do us. a favor, and expound the laws of religion.
Marcus. — I will explain them as well as I can ; and since both the
topic and the conversation is a familar one, I shall begin by describing
the laws of laws.
Quintus. — What laws do you mean?
Marcus. — There are certain terms in law, my Quintus, not so
ancient as those in the primitive sacred laws, but still, in order to carry
with them greater authority, being of a somewhat greater antiquity
than the common parlance of people. These legal terms, I shall men-
tion with as much brevity as possible ; and I shall endeavor to expound
the laws, not, indeed, in their whole extent, for this would be a bound-
less subject, but those which involve the principles, and contain the sum
and substance of the rest.
Quintus. — This appears a most desirable method ; let us therefore
hear the terms of the law.
VIII. Marcus. — Such are the following: — Let men approach the
gods with purity — let men appear before them in the spirit of devotion
— let men remove riches from their temples ; whoever doth otherwise
shall suffer the vengeance of heaven — let no one have private gods —
CICERO 221
neither new gods nor strange gods, unless publicly acknowledged, are
to be worshiped privately — let the temples which our fathers have con-
structed in the cities, be upheld — let the people maintain the groves in
the country, and the abodes of the Lares — let men preserve the customs
of their fathers and of their family — let the gods who have been ac-
counted celestial be worshiped, and those likewise who have merited
celestial honors by their illustrious actions, such as Hercules, Bacchus,
^Esculapius, Castor, Pollux, and Quirinus. Let due honor be likewise
paid to those virtues, by which man is exalted to heaven — as Intelli-
gence, Valor, Piety, Fidelity ; and let temples be consecrated to their
honor — with regard to the vices, let no sacred sacrifies be paid to them.
Let men put aside all contentions of every kind on the sacred fes-
tivals, and let servants enjoy them, their toils being remitted, for there-
fore they were appointed at certain seasons. — Let the priests duly render
the public thank-offerings to heaven, with herbs and fruits, on the sac-
rificial days. Also, on the appointed holidays, let them offer up the
cream of milk, and the sucklings ; and lest the priests should commit
any mistakes in these sacrifices, or the season of these sacrifices, let them
carefully observe the calendar, and the revolutions of the stars. — Let
them provide those particular victims which are most appropriate and
agreeable to each particular deity. — Let the different gods have dif-
ferent orders of priests (sacerdotes). — Let them all have pontiffs in
common ; and let each separate god have his Flamen.
Let the Vestal Virgins in the city carefully keep the eternal fire of
the public altar always burning ; and, that this may be done both pub-
licly and privately with all due form and ceremony, let those who are
not instructed in the order of the ceremonials learn it from the public
priests. Let there be two classes of these priests, one to preside over
ceremonials and sacrifices, and the other to interpret the obscure pre-
dictions of the prophets and diviners, whenever the senate and the
people require it. Let the public Augurs, who are the interpreters of
the all-good and all-great Jupiter, likewise examine the presages and
the auspices, according to the discipline of their art. Let the priests
who are conversant in auguries implore prosperity for the vineyards
and gardens, and pray for the general welfare of the people. Let those
who prive counsel in militarv or civic affairs attend to the auspices, and
be guided by them. Let them guard against the anger of heaven, and
appease it ; and observe from what part of heaven the lightnings burst
forth. Let them declare what lands, cities, and temples, are to be held
free and consecrated. Whatever things the augur declares to be un-
222 CICERO
just, ill-omened, vicious, and accursed, let them be forsaken as pro-
hibited and disastrous, and whoever will not obey these divine indica-
tions, let him suffer capital punishment.
IX. As to alliances, peace, war, truces, and the rights of ambas-
sadors, let the two Feciales be the appropriate judges, and let them
determine all questions relating to military affairs. Let them report
all prodigies and portents to the Etruscans and soothsayers, if the senate
orders it ; and let the chiefs of Etruria explain their system. Then will
they learn what deities it behoves them to propitiate, and deprecate the
fury of the thunderbolt against the object of its vengeance.
Let there be no nocturnal sacrifices performed by women, except
those which they offer according to custom on behalf of the people ; and
let none be initiated in the mysteries except by the usual forms conse-
crated to Ceres, according to the Grecian ceremonials.
A crime which has been committed and can not be expiated has
been an act of impiety ; as to the faults which can be expiated, let the
public priests expiate them.
Let men temper the public hilarity with song, and harp, and flute
at the public games, as far as can be done without the games of the race-
course and the wrestling-matches, and let them unite these amusements
with the honors of the gods. Let them retain whatever is best and
purest in the ancient form of worship. Except the devotees of Cybele,
to whom this privilege is allowed on certain days, let no one presume
to levy rates for private emolument. Whoever purloins or robs any
temple, or steals any property deposited in a temple, shall be accounted
a parricide. The divine punishment of perjury is destruction — the
human penalty is infamy. With regard to incest, let the chief priest
sentence it to the extremest penalty of the law.
Let not the impius man attempt to appease the gods by gifts and
offerings. Let vows be carefully performed. Wherever law is violated
let its punishments be executed. Let no private person presume to
consecrate his land ; and let his consecration of gold, silver, and ivory,
be made within the limits of moderation. Let the sacred actions of
private persons be perserved for ever. Let the rights of the deities of
the dead be considered sacred. Let those who have passed into the
world of souls be considered as deified ! but let men diminish the un-
necessary expense and sorrow which is lavished on them.
X. 'Atticus. — You have managed to include a great deal of law in
a very small compass ; but it seems to me, that this class of religious
CICERO 223
maxims does not much differ from the laws of Numa and our national
regulations.
Marcus. — Do you suppose, then, that when, in my Treatise on the
Commonwealth, Scipio appears to be arguing that our ancient Roman
Commonwealth was the best of all republics, it was not indispensible
that I should give laws of corresponding excellence to that best of
all republics.
Atticus. — Undoubtedly I think you should.
Marcus. — Well, then, you may expect such laws as may embrace
that most perfect kind of republic. And if any others should haply
be demanded of me this day, which are not to be found, and never have
existed, in our Roman Commonwealth, yet even these formed a portion
of the customs of our ancestors, which at that time were maintained as
religiously as the laws themselves. — On the Laws, Bk. II.
I. Marcus. — I shall, therefore, imitate that divine man, who has
inspired me with such admiration that I eulogize him perhaps oftencr
than is necessary.
Atticus. — You mean Plato.
Marcus. — The very man, my Atticus.
Atticus. — Indeed you do not exaggerate your compliments, nor
bestow them too frequently, for even my Epicurean friends, who do
not like any one to be praised but their own master, still allow me to
love Plato as much as I like.
Marcus. — They do well to grant you this indulgence, for what can
be so suitable to the elegance of your taste as the writings of Plato ? —
who in his life and manners appears to me to have succeeded in that
most difficult combination of gravity and politeness.
Atticus. — I am glad I interrupted you, since you have availed
yourself of an opportunity of giving this splendid testimonial of your
judgment respecting him ; but to pursue the subject as you began.
Marcus. — Let us begin, then, with praising the law itself, with
those commendations which are both deserved and appropriate to the
subject.
Atticus. — That is but fair, since you did the same in the case of
our ecclesiastical jurisprudence.
Marcus. — You see, then, that this is the duty of magistrates, to
superintend and prescribe all things which are just and useful, and in
accordance with the law. For as the law is set over the magistrate,
even so are the magistrates set over the people. And, therefore, it may
224 CICERO
be truly said, "that the magistrate is a speaking law, and the law is a
silent magistrate."
Moreover, nothing is so conformable to justice and to the condition
of nature (and when I use that expression, I wish it to be understood
that I mean the law, and nothing else,) as sovereign power; without
which, neither house, nor commonwealth, nor nation, nor mankind it-
self, nor the entire nature of things, nor the universe itself, could exist.
For this universe is obedient to God, and land and sea are submissive
to the universe; and human life depends on the just administration of
the laws of the universe ; and human life depends on the just adminis-
tration of the laws of order.
It. But to come to considerations nearer home, and more familiar
to us, all ancient nations have been at one time or other under the
dominion of kings. Which kind of authority was at first conferred on
the wisest and justest of men. (And this rule mainly prevailed in our
own commonwealth, as long as the regal power lasted.) Afterward, the
authority of kings was handled down in succession to their decendants,
and this practice remains to this day in those which are governed by
kings. And even those to whom the regal domination was distasteful,
did not desire to be obedient to no one, but only to be always under the
authority of the same person.
For ourselves, then, as we are proposing laws for a free people,
and we have have already set forth in six books all our own opinions
about the best kind of commonwealth, we shall on the present occasion
endeavor to accommodate our laws to that constitutional government of
which we have expressed our approval.
It is clear, then, that magistrates are absolutely necessary; since,
without their prudence and diligence, a state cannot exist ; and since it
is by their regulations that the whole commonwealth is kept within the
bounds of moderation. But it is not enough to prescribe them a rule of
domination, unless we likewise prescribe the citizens a rule of obedience.
For he who commands well, must at some time or other have obeyed ;
and he who obeys with modesty appears worthy of some day or other
being allowed to command. It is desirable, therefore, that he who
obeys should expect that some day he will come to command, and that
he who commands should bear in mind that ere long he may be called to
the duty of submission.
We would not, however, limit ourselves to requiring from the
citizens submission and obedience towards their magistrates ; we would
also enjoin them by all means to honor and love their rulers, as Char-
CICBRO 225
ondas prescribes in his code. Our Plato likewise declares that they are
of the race of the Titans, who, as they rebelled against the heavenly
deities, do in like manner oppose their magistrates. These points be-
ing granted, we will, if you please, advance to the examination of the
laws themselves.
Atticus. — I certainly do please, and the arrangement seems ad-
visable.
III. Marcus. — "Let all authorities be just, and let them be hon-
estly obeyed by the people with modesty and without opposition. Let
the magistrate restrain the disobedient and mischievous citizen, by fine,
imprisonment, and corporal chastisement ; unless some equal or greater
power, or the people forbid it ; for there should be an appeal thereto. If
the magistrate shall have decided, and inflicted a penalty, let there be a
public appeal to the people respecting the penalty and fine imposed.
"With respect to the army, and the general that commands it by
martial law, there should be no appeal from his authority. And what-
ever he who conducts the war commands, shall be absolute law, and
ratified as such.
"As to the minor magistrates, let there be such a distribution of
their legal duties, that each may more effectively superintend his own
department of justice. In the army let those who are appointed com-
mand, and let them have tribunes. In the city, let men be appointed as
superintendents of the public treasury. Let some devote their attention
to the prison discipline, and capital punishments. Let others supervise
the public coinage of gold, and silver, and copper. Let others judge
suits and arbitrations ; and let others carry the orders of the senate into
execution.
'Let there likewise be aediles, curators of the city, the provisions,
and the public games, and let these offices be the first steps to higher
promotions of honor.
"Let the censors take a census of the people, according to age, off-
spring, family, and property. Let them have the inspection of the
temples, the streets, the aqueducts, the rates, and the customs. Let
them distribute the citizens, according to their tribes ; after that let them
divide them with reference to their fortunes, ages, and ranks. Let
them keep a register of the families of those of the equestrian and ple-
beian orders. Let them impose a tax on celibates. Let them guard the
morals of the people. Let them permit no scandal in the senate. Let
the number of such censors be two. Let their magistracy continue five
226 CICERO
years. Let the other magistrates be annual, but their offices them-
selves should be perpetual.
"Let the judge of the law who shall decide private actions, or send
them for decision to the praetor — let him be the proper guardian of
civil jurisprudence. Let him have as many colleagues of equal power,
as the senate think necessary, and the people allows him.
"Let two magistrates be invested with sovereign authority; from
their presiding, judging, and counselling, let them be called praetors
judges, or consuls. Let them have supreme authority over the army,
and let them be subject to none ; for the safety of the people is the su-
preme law ; and no one should succeed to this magistracy till it has been
held ten years — regulating the duration by an annual law.
"When a considerable war is undertaken, or discord is likely to ensue
among the citizens, let a single supreme magistrate be appointed, who
shall unite in his own person,'the authority of both consuls, if the senate
so decrees, for six months only. And when such a magistrate has been
proclaimed under favorable auspices, let him be the master of the people.
Let him have for a colleague, with equal powers with himself, a knight
whomsoever he may choose to appoint, as judge of the law. And when
such a dictator or master of the people is created the other magistrates
shall be suppressed.
"Let the auspices be observed by the senate, and let them authorize
persons of their body to elect the consuls in the comitia, according
to the established ceremonials.
"Let the commanders, generals, and lieutenants, leave the city
whenever the senate decrees or the people orders that they shall do so.
Let them properly prosecute all just wars. Let them spare our allies,
and restrain themselves and their subordinates. Let them increase the
glory of our country. Let them return home with honor. Let no one be
made an ambassador with a view to his own interest.
"Let the ten officers whom the people elect to protect them against
oppression be their tribunes; and let all their prohibitions and adjudi-
cations be established, and their persons considered inviolable, so that
tribunes may never be wanting to the people.
"Let all magistrates possess their auspices and jurisdictions, and
let the senate be composed of these legitmate authorities. Let its ordi-
nances be absolute, and let its enactments be written and ratified, unless
an equal or greater authority disannul them. Let the order of the
senators be free from reproach and scandal, and let them be an example
of virtue to all. •
CICERO 227
"In the creation of magistrates, the judgment of the accused, and
the reception or rejection of laws, when suffrages are employed, let
the suffrages be at once notorious to the nobles, and free to the people.
IV. "If any question occur out of the established jurisdiction of
the magistrates, let another magistrate be appointed by the people,
whose jurisdiction shall expressly extend thereto. Let the consul, the
praetor, the censor, the master of the people and of the knights, and he
to whom the senate has committed the election of consuls, have full
liberty to treat both with the senate and the people, and endeavor to
reconcile the interests of all parties. Let the tribunes of the people
likewise have free access to the senate, and advocate the interests of
the people in all their deliberations. Let a just moderation predominate
in the opinions and declarations of those who would thus act as media-
tors between the senate and the people. Let a senator who does not
attend the senate, either show cause of his non-attendance, or submit to
an appropriate fine. Let a senator speak in his turn, with all modera-
tion, and let him be thoroughly acquainted with the interests of the
people.
"By all means avoid violence among the people. Let the greatest
authority have the greatest weight in decisions. If any one shall dis-
turb the public harmony, and foment party quarrels, let him be pun-
ished as a criminal. To act the intercessor in cases of offence should
be considered the part of a good citizen. Let those who act observe the
auspices ; obey the public augur, and carry into effect all proclamations,
taking care that they are exhibited in the treasury and generally known.
Let the public consultations be concentrated in one point at a time, let
them instruct the people in the nature of the question, and let all the
magistrates and the people be permitted to advise on the subject.
"Let them permit no monopolies, or privileges. With respect to
the capital punishment of any citizen, let it not take place, unless by the
adjudication of the high courts of justice, and the ministry of those
whom the censors have placed over the popular orders. Let no bribes
be given or received, either in soliciting, discharging, or resigning an
official situation.
"If any one infringe any of these laws, let him be liable to penalty.
Let these regulations be committed to the charge of the censors. Let
public officers, on their retiring from their posts, gives the censors an
account of their conduct, but let them not by this means escape from
legal prosecution if they have been guilty of corruption."
228 CICERO
I have here recited the whole law ; now, consider the question, and
give your votes.
V. Quintus. — With what conciseness, my brother, have you
brought before our eyes the duties and offices of all magistrates ! But
your system of laws is almost that of our own commonwealth, although
a little that is new has also been added by you.
Marcus. — Your observation is very just, my Quintus, for this is
the very system of a commonwealth which Scipio eulogises in my
treatise, and which he mainly approves — and which can not be kept in
operation but by a successive order of magistrates, such as we have
described. For you may take it for granted that it is the establishment
of magistrates that gives its form to a commonwealth, and it is exactly
by their distribution and subordination that we must determine the
nature of the constitution. Which establishment being very wisely and
discretely settled by our ancestors, there is nothing, or at all events very
little alteration that I think necessary in the laws. — On the Laws.
Bk. III.
TRANSLATION OF C. D. YONGE.
THE BEST FORM OF GOVERNMENT
THEN LAELIUS SAID — But you have not told us, Scipio,
which of these three forms of government you yourself most approve.
Scipio. — You are right to shape your question, which of the three
I most approve, for there is not one of them which I approve at all by
itself, since, as I told you, I prefer that government which is mixed anc!
composed of all these forms, to any one of them taken separately. But
if I must confine myself to one of the particular forms simply and ex-
clusively, I must confess I prefer the royal one, and praise that as the
first and best. In this, which I here choose to call the primitive form
of government, I find the title of father attached to that of king, to ex-
press that he watches over the citizens as over his children, and en-
deavors rather to preserve them in freedom than reduce them to slavery.
So that it is more advantageous for those who are insignificant in prop-
erty and capacity to be supported by the care of one excellent and emi-
nently powerful man. The nobles here present themselves, who profess
CICERO -J-A
that they can do all this in much better style ; for they say that there is
much more wisdom in many than in one, and at least as much faith and
equity. And, last of all, come the people, who cry with a loud voice, that
they will render obedience neither to the one nor to the few ; that even
to brute beasts nothing is so dear as liberty ; and that all men who serve
either kings or nobles are deprived of it. Thus, the kings attract us by
affection, the nobles by talent, the people by liberty; and in the com-
parison it is hard to choose the best.
Ldlius. — I think so, too, but yet it is impossible to dispatch the
other branches of the question, if you leave this primary point unde-
termined.
XXXVI. Scipio. — We must, then, I suppose, imitate Aratus,
who, when he prepared himself to treat of great things, thought himself
in duty bound to begin with Jupiter.
Lcelius. — Wherefore Jupiter? and what is there in this discussion
which resembles that poem?
Scipio. — Why, it serves to teach us that we cannot better com-
mence our investigations than by invoking him, whom, with one voice,
both learned and unlearned extol as the universal king of all gods and
men.
How so? said Laelius.
Do you, then asked Scipio, believe in nothing which is not before
jrour eyes ? whether these ideas have been established by the chiefs of
states for the benefit of society, that there might be believed to exist one
Universal Monarch in heaven, at whose nod (as Homer expresses it)
pll Olympus trembles, and that he might be accounted both king and
father of all creatures ; for there is great authority, and there are many
witnesses, if you choose to call all many, who attest that all nations have
unanimously recognized, by the decrees of their chiefs, that nothing is
better than a king, since they think that all the gods are governed by the
divine power of one sovereign ; or if we suspect that this opinion rests
on the error of the ignorant, and should be classed among the fables,
let us listen to those universal testimonies of erudite men, who have, as
it were, seen with their eyes those things to the knowledge of which we
can hardly attain by report.
What men do you mean? said Laelius.
Those, replied Scipio, who, by the investigation of nature, have
arrived at the opinion that the whole universe [is animated] by a single
Mind. (Text missing.)
XXXVII. But if you please, my Laelius, I will bring forward evi-
230 CICERO
dences, which are neither too ancient, nor in any respect barbarious.
Those, said Laelius, are what I want.
Scipio. — You are aware, that it is now not four centuries since
this city of ours has been without kings.
Lcelius. — You are correct, it is less than four centuries.
Scipio. — Well, then, what are four centuries in the age of a state
or city ; is it a long time ?
Lcelius. — It hardly amounts to the age of maturity.
Scipio. — You say truly, and yet not four centuries have elapsed
since there was a king in Rome.
Lcelius. — And he was a proud king.
Scipio. — But who was his predecessor?
Lcelius. — He was an admirably just one; and, indeed, we must
bestow the same praise on all his predecessors, as far back as Romulus,
who reigned about six centuries ago.
Scipio. — Even he, then, is not very ancient.
Lcelius. — No, he reigned when Greece was already becoming old.
Scipio. — Agreed. Was Romulus, then, think you, king of a bar-
barous people?
Lcelius. — Why, as to that, if we are to follow the example of the
Greeks, who say that all people are either Greeks or barbarians, I am
afraid that we must confess that he was a king of barbarians; but if
this name belong rather to manners than to languages, then I believe
the Greeks were just as barbarous as the Romans.
Then Scipio said — But with respect to the present question, we do
not so much need to inquire into the nation as into the disposition. For
if intelligent men, at a period so little remote, desired the governing of
kings, you will confess that I am producing authorities that are
neither antiquated, rude, nor insignificant.
XXXVIII. Then Laelius said — I see, Scipio, that you are very
sufficiently provided with authorities; but with me, as with every fair
judge, authorities are worth less than arguments.
Scipio replied — Then, Laelius, you shall yourself make use of an
argument derived from your own senses.
Lcelius. — What senses do you mean ?
Scipio. — The feelings which you experience when at any time you
happen to feel angry at any one.
Lcelius. — That happens rather oftener than I could wish.
Scipio. — Well, then, when you are angry, do you permit your anger
to triumph over your judgment?
CICERO 231
No, by Hercules! said Laelius, I imitate the famous Archytas of
Tarentum, who, when he came to his villa, and found all its arrange-
ments were contrary to his orders, said to his steward — "Ah ! you un-
lucky scoundrel, I would flog you to death, if it were not that I am in
a rage with you."
Capital, said Scipio. Archytas, then, regarded unreasonable anger
as a kind of sedition and rebellion of nature, which he sought to appease
by reflection. And so, if we examine avarice, the ambition of power or
or glory, or the lusts of concupiscence and licentiousness, we shall find
a certain conscience in the mind of man, which, like a king, sways by the
force of counsel all the inferior faculties and propensities ; and this, in
truth, is the noblest portion of our nature ; for when conscience reigns,
it allows no resting place to lust, violence, or temerity.
Lcrlius. — You have spoken the truth.
Scipio. — Well, then, does a mind thus governed and regulated meet
your approbation?
Lcelius. — More than anything on earth.
Scipio. — Then you would not approve that the evil passions, which
are innumerable, should expel conscience, and that lusts and animal
propensities should assume an ascendancy over us ?
Lcelius. — For my part, I can conceive nothing more wretched than
a mind thus degraded, or a man animated by a soul so licentious.
Scipio. — You desire, then, that all the facilities of the mind should
submit to a ruling power, and that conscience should reign over them
all?
Laelius. — Certainly, that is my wish.
Scipio. — How, then, can you doubt what opinion to form on the
subject of the commonwealth? in which, if the state is thrown into
many hands, it is very plain that there will be no presiding authority;
for if power be not united, it soon comes to nothing.
XXXIX. Then Laelius asked — But what difference is there, I
should like to know, between the one and the many, if justice exists
equally in many?
And Scipio said — Since I see, my Laelius, that the authorities I have
adduced have no great influence on you, I must continue to employ your-
self as my witness in proof of what I am saying.
In what way, said Laelius, are you going to make me again sup-
port your argument?
Scipio. — Why thus. I recollect when we were lately at Formiae,
232 CICERO
that you told your servants repeatedly to obey the orders of not more
than one master only.
Lcelius — To be sure, those of my steward.
Scipio. — What do you at home ? do you commit your affairs to the
hands of many persons ?
Lcelius. — No, I trust them to myself alone.
Scipio. — Well, in your whole establishment, is there any other
master but yourself?
Lcelius. — Not one.
Scipio. — Then I think you must grant me that as respects the state,
the government of single individuals, provided they are just, is superior
to any other.
Lcelius. — You have conducted me to this conclusion, and I entertain
very nearly that opinion.
XL. And Scipio said — You would still further agree with me,
my Laelius, if, omitting the common comparisons, that one pilot is better
fitted to steer a ship, and a physician to treat an invalid, provided they
be competent men in their respective professions, than many could be,
I should come at once to more illustrious examples.
Lcelius. — What examples do you mean?
Scipio. — Do you observe that it was the cruelty and pride of one
single Tarquin only, that made the title of king unpopular among the
Romans ?
Lcelius. — Yes, I acknowledge that.
Scipio. — You are also aware of this fact, on which I think I shall
debate in the course of the coming discussion, that after the expulsion
of King Tarquin, the people was transported by a wonderful excess of
liberty. Then, innocent men were driven into banishment; then the
estates of many individuals were pillaged, consulships were made an-
nual, public authorities were overawed by mobs, popular appeals took
place in all cases imaginable; then secessions of the lower orders en-
sued; and lastly, those proceedings which tended to place all powers
in the hands of the populace.
Laelius. — I must confess this all too true.
All these things now, said Scipio, happened during periods of peace
and tranquility, for licence is wont to prevail when there is too little to
fear, as in a calm voyage, or a trifling disease. But as we observe the
voyager and invalid implore the aid of some competent director, as soon
as the sea grows stormy and the disease alarming! so our nation in peace
and security commands, threatens, resists, appeals from, and insults its
CICERO m
magistrates, but in war obeys them as strictly as kings ; for public safety
is after all rather more valuable than popular licence. And in the most
serious wars, our countrymen have even chosen the entire command to
be deposited in the hands of some single chief, without a colleague ; the
very name of which magistrate indicates the absolute cliaracter of his
power. For though he is evidently called dictator because he is ap-
pointed (dictur), yet do we still observe him, my Laelius, in our sacred
books entitled (Magistcr Fopuli), the master of the people.
This is certainly the case, said Laelius.
Our ancestors, therefore, said Scipio, acted wisely. (Text miss-
ing.)— On the Republic, Bk. I.
TRANSLATION OF C. D. YONGE.
SCIPIO'S DREAM
WHEN I had arrived in Africa, where I was, as you are aware,
military tribune of the fourth legion under the consul Manilius, there
was nothing of which I was more earnestly desirous than to see King
Masinissa, who, for very just reasons, had been always the especial
friend of our family. When I was introduced to him, the old man em-
braced me, shed tears, and then, looking up to heaven, exclaimed — I
thank thee, O supreme Sun, and ye also, ye other celestial beings, that
before I departed from this life I behold in my kingdom, and in my
palace, Publius Cornelius Scipio, by whose mere name I seem to be re-
animated; so complete and indelibly is the recollection of that best and
most invincible of men, Africanus, imprinted in my mind.
After this, I inquired of him concerning the affairs of his kingdom.
He, on the other hand, questioned me about the condition of our com-
monwealth, and in this mutual interchange of conversation we passed
the whole of that day.
X. In the evening, we were entertained in a manner worthy the
magnificence of a king, and carried on our discourse for a considerable
part of the night. And during all this time the old man spoke of noth-
ing but Africanus, all whose actions, and even remarkable sayings, he
remembered distinctly. At last, when we retired to bed, I fell in a more
profound sleep than usual, both because I was fatigued with my journey,
- V 3-15
234 CICERO
and because I had sat up the greatest part of the night.
Here I had the following dream, occasioned, as I verily believe, by
our preceding conversation — for it frequently happens that the thoughts
and discourses which have employed us in the day time, produce in our
sleep an effect somewhat similar to that which Ennius writes happened
to him about Homer, of whom, in his waking hours, he used frequently
to think and speak.
Africanus, I thought, appeared to me in that shape, with which I
was better acquainted from his picture, than from any personal knowl-
edge of him. When I perceived it was he, I confess I trembled with
consternation ; but he addressed me, saying, Take courage, my Scipio,
be not afraid, and carefully remember what I am saying to you.
XI. Do you see that city Carthage, which, though brought under
the Roman yoke by me, is now renewing former wars, and cannot live
in peace? (and he pointed to Carthage from a lofty spot, full of stars,
and brilliant and glittering;) to attack which city you are this day
arrived in a station not much superior to that of a private soldier. Be-
fore two years, however, are elapsed, you shall be consul, and complete
its overthrow ; and you shall obtain, by your own merit, the surname of
Africanus, which, as yet, belongs to you no otherwise than as derived
from me. And when you have destroyed Carthage, and received the
honor of a triumph, and been made censor, and, in quality of ambas-
sador, visited Egypt, Syria, Asia, and Greece, you shall be elected a
second time consul in your absence, and by utterly destroying Numan-
tia, put an end to a most dangerous war.
But when you have entered the Capitol in your triumphal car, you
shall find the Roman commonwealth all in a ferment, through the in-
trigues of my grandson Tiberius Gracchus.
XII. It is on this occasion, my dear Africanus, that you show your
country the greatness of your understanding, capacity and prudence.
But I see that the destiny, however, of that time is, as it were, uncertain;
for when your age shall have accomplished seven times eight revolutions
of the sun, and your fatal hours shall be marked out by the natural
product of these two numbers, each of which is esteemed a perfect one,
but for different reasons, — then shall the whole city have recourse to
you alone, and place its hopes in your auspicious name. On you the
senate, all good citizens, the allies, the people of Latium, shall cast their
eyes; on you the preservation of the state shall entirely depend. In a
word, if you escape the impious machinations of your relatives, you will,
C1CEKU 235
in the quality of dictator, establish order and tranquility in the common-
wealth.
When on this Laelius made an exclamation, and the rest of the com-
pany groaned loudly, Scipio, with a gentle smile, said — I entreat you,
do not wake me out of my dream, but have patience, and hear the rest.
XIII. Now, in order to encourage you, my dear Africanus, contin-
ued the shade of my ancestor, to defend the state with the greater cheer-
fulness, be assured that for all those who have in any way conduced to
the preservation, defence, and enlargement of their native country, there
is a certain place in heaven, where they shall enjoy an eternity of happi-
ness. For nothing on earth is more agreeable to God, the Supreme
Governor of the universe, than the assemblies and societies of men
united together by laws, which are called States. It is from heaven their
rulers and preservers came, and thither they return.
XIV. Though at these words I was extremely troubled, not so
much at the fear of death, as at the perfidy of my own relations ; yet I
recollected myself enough to inquire, whether he himself, my father
Paulus, and others whom we look upon as dead, were really living.
Yes, truly, replied he, they all enjoy life who have escaped from
the chains of the body as from a prison. But as to what you call life
on earth, that is no more than one form of death. But see, here comes
your father Paulus towards you ! And as soon as I observed him, my
eyes burst out into a flood of tears; but he took me in his arms, and
bade me not weep.
XV. When my first transports subsided, and I regained the lib-
erty of speech, I addressed my father thus : — Thou best and most ven-
erable of parents, since this, as I am informed by Africanus, is the only
substantial life, why do I linger on earth, and not rather hasten to come
hither where you are?
That, replied he, is impossible; unless that God, whose temples is
all that vast expanse you behold, shall free you from the fetters of the
body, you can have no admission into this place. Mankind have received
their being on this very condition, that they should labor for the preser-
vation of that globe, which is situated, as you see, in the midst of this
temple, and is called earth.
Men are likewise endowed with a soul, which is a portion of the
eternal fires, which you call stars and constellations; and which, being
round, spherical bodies, animated by divine intelligence, perform their
cycles and revolutions with amazing rapidity. It is your duty, there-
fore, my Publius, and that of all who have any veneration for the gods,
236 CICERO
to preserve this wonderful union of soul and body; nor without the
express command of him who gave you a soul, should the least thought
be entertained of quitting human life, lest you seem to desert the post
assigned to you by God himself.
But rather follow the example of your grandfather here, and of
me, your father, in paying a strict regard to justice and piety ; which is
due in a great degree to parents and relations, but most of all to our
country. Such a life as this is the true way to heaven, and to the com-
pany of those, who, after having lived on earth and escaped from the
body, inhabit the place which you now behold.
XVI. This was the shining circle, or zone, whose remarkable
Brightness distinguishes it among the constellations, and which, after
the Greeks, you call the Milky Way.
From thence, as I took a view of the universe, everything appeared
beautiful and admirable ; for there, those stars are to be seen that are
never visible from our globe, and everything appears of such magnitude
as we could not have imagined. The least of all the stars, was that re-
moved furthest from heaven, and situated next to earth; I mean our
moon, which shines with a borrowed light. Now the globes of the
stars far surpass the magnitude of our earth, which at that distance ap-
peared so exceedingly small, that I could not but be sensibly affected
on seeing our whole empire no larger than if we touched the earth with
a point.
XVII. And as long as I continued to observe the earth with great
attention, How long, I pray you, said Africanus, will your mind be fixed
on that object ; why don't you rather take a view of the magnificent tem-
ples among which you have arrived ? The universe is composed of nine
circles, or rather spheres, one of which is the heavenly one, and is ex-
terior to all the rest, which it embraces ; being itself the Supreme God,
and bounding and containing the whole. In it are fixed those stars
which revolve with never varying courses. Below this are seven other
spheres, which revolve in a contrary direction to that of the heavens.
One of these is occupied by the globe which on earth they call Saturn.
Next to that is the star of Jupiter, so benign and salutary to mankind.
The third in order, is that fiery and terrible planet called Mars. Below
this again, almost in the middle region, is the Sun, — the leader, gover-
nor, the prince of the other luminaries; the soul of the world, which it
regulates and illumines, being of such vast size that it pervades and
gives light to all places. Then follow Venus and Mercury, which
attend, as it were, on the Sun. Lastly, the Moon, which shines only in
CICERO L>~
the reflected beams of the Sun, moves in the lowest sphere of all. Below
this, if we except that gift of the gods, the soul, which has been given
by the liberality of the gods to the human race, every thing is mortal,
and tends to dissolution, but above the moon all is eternal. For the
Earth, which is in the ninth globe, and occupies the center, is immove-
ablc, and being the lowest, all others gravitate towards it.
XVIII. When I had recovered myself from the astonishment
occasioned by such a wonderful prospect, I thus addressed Africanus —
Pray what is this sound that strikes my ears in so loud and agreeable a
manner? To which he replied — it is that which is called the music of
the spheres, being produced by their motion and impulse ; and being
formed by unequal intervals, but such as are divided according to the
justest proportion, it produces, by duly tempering acute with grave
sounds, various concerts of harmony. For it is impossible that motions
so great should be performed without any noise ; and it is agreeable to>
nature that the extremes on one side should produce sharp, and on the
other flat sounds. For which reason the sphere of the fixed stars, being:
the highest, and being carried with a more rapid velocity, moves with
a shrill and acute sound ; whereas that of the moon, beingr the lowest,
moves with a very flat one. As to the Earth, which makes the ninth
sphere, it remains immoveably fixed in the middle or lowest part of the
universe. But those eight revolving circles, in which both Mercury and
Venus are moved with the same celerity, give out sounds that are
divided by seven distinct intervals, which is generally the regulating
number of all things.
This celestial harmony has been imitated by learned musicians,
both on stringed instruments and with the voice, whereby they have
opened to themselves a way to return to the celestial regions, as have
likewise many others who have employed their sublime genius while on
earth in cultivating the divine sciences.
By the amazing noise of this sound, the ears of mankind have been
in some degree deafened, and indeed, hearing is the dullest of all the
human senses. Thus, the people who dwell near the cataracts of the
Nile, which are called Catadupa, are, by the excessive roar which that
river makes in precipitating itself from those lofty mountains, entirely
deprived of the sense of hearing. And so inconceiveably great is this
sound which is produced by the rapid motion of the whole universe,
that the human ear is no more capable of receiving it, than the eye is
able to look steadfastly and directly on the sun, whose beams easily
dazzle the strongest sight.
238 CICERO
While I was busied in admiring the scene of wonders, I could not
help casting my eyes every now and then on the earth.
XIX. On which Africanus said — I perceive that you are still em-
ployed in contemplating the seat and residence of mankind. But if it
appears to you so small, as in fact it really is, despise its vanities, and
fix your attention for ever on these heavenly objects. Is it possible that
you should attain any human applause or glory that is worth the con-
tending for? The earth, you see, is peopled but in a very few places,
and those too of small extent ; and they appear like so many little spots
of green scattered through vast uncultivated deserts. And those who
inhabit the earth are not only so remote from each other as to be cut off
from all mutual correspondence, but their situation being in oblique or
contrary parts of the globe, or perhaps in those diametrically opposite to
yours, all expectation of universal fame must fall to the ground.
XX. You may likewise observe that the same globe of the earth
is girt and surrounded with certain zones, whereof those two that are
most remote from each other, and lie under the opposite poles of heaven,
are congealed with frost ; but that one in the middle, which is far the
largest, is scorched with the intense heat of the sun. The other two are
habitable, one towards the south — the inhabitants of which are your
Antipodes, with whom you have no connexion, — the other, towards the
north, is that which you inhabit, whereof a very small part, as you may
see, falls to your share. For the whole extent of what you see, is as it
were but a little island, narrow at both ends and wide in the middle,
which is surrounded by the sea which on earth you call the great Atlan-
tic ocean, and which, notwithstanding this magnificent name, you see is
very insignificant. And even in these cultivated and well-known coun-
tries, has yours, or any of our names, ever passed the heights of the
Caucasus, or the currents of the Ganges ? In what other parts to the
north or the south, or where the sun rises and sets, will your names ever
be heard ? And if we leave these out of the question, how small a space
is there left for your glory to spread itself abroad? and how long will
it remain in the memory of those whose minds are now full of it?
XXL Besides all this, if the progeny of any future generation
should wish to transmit to their posterity the praises of any one of us
which they have heard from their forefathers, yet the deluges and com-
bustions of the earth which must necessarily happen at their destined
periods will prevent our obtaining, not only an eternal, but even a dur-
able glory. And after all, what does it signify, whether those who, shall
hereafter be born talk of you, when those who have lived before you,
CICERO 2 :;'.'
whose number was perhaps not less, and whose merit certainly greater,
were not so much as acquainted with your name ?
XXII. Especially since not one of those who shall hear of us is
able to retain in his memory the transactions of a single year. The bulk
of mankind, indeed, measure their year by the return of the sun, which
is only one star. But, when all the stars shall have returned to the place
whence they set out, and after long periods shall again exhibit the same
aspect of the whole heavens, that is what ought properly to be called
the revolution of a year, though I scarcely dare attempt to enumerate
the vast multitude of ages contained in it. For as the sun in old time
was eclipsed, and seemed to be extinguished, at the time when the soul
of Romulus penetrated into these eternal mansions, so, when all the
constellations and stars shall revert to their primary position, and the
sun shall at the same point and time be again eclipsed, then you may
consider that the grand year is completed. Be assured, however, that
the twentieth part of it is not yet elapsed.
XXIII. Wherefore, if you have no hopes of returning to this
place, where great and good men enjoy all that their souls can wish for,
of what value, pray, is all that human glory, which can hardly endure
for a small portion of one year?
If, then, you wish to elevate your views to the contemplation of this
eternal seat of splendor, you will not be satisfied with the praises of
your fellow-mortals, nor with any human rewards that your exploits
can obtain ; but Virtue herself must point out to you the true and only
object worthy of your pursuit. Leave to others to speak of you as they
may, for speak they will. Their discourses will be confined to the nar-
row limits of the countries you see, nor will their duration be very ex-
tensive, for they will perish like those who utter them, and will be no
more remembered by their posterity."
XXIV. When he had ceased to speak in this manner, I said — Oh,
Africanus, if indeed the door of heaven is open to those who have
deserved well of their country, although, indeed, from my childhood,
I have always followed yours and my father's steps, and have not neg-
lected to imitate your glory, still I will from henceforth strive to follow
them more closely.
Follow them, then, said he, and consider your body only, not your-
self, as mortal. For it is not your outward form which constitutes your
being, but your mind ; not that substance which is palpable to the senses,
but your spiritual nature. Know, then, that you are a god — for a god
it must be which flourishes, and feels, and recollects, and foresees, and
240 CICERO
governs, regulates and moves the body over which it is set, as the Su-
preme Ruler does the world which is subject to him. For as that Eter-
nal Being moves whatever is mortal in this world, so the immortal mind
of man moves the frail body with which it is connected.
XXV. For whatever is always moving must be eternal, but that
which derives its motion from a power which is foreign to itself, when
that motion ceases must itself lose its animation.
That alone, then, which moves itself can never cease to be moved,
because it can never desert itself. Moreover, it must be the source, and
origin, and principle of motion in all the rest. There can be nothing
prior to a principle, for all things must originate from it, and it cannot
itself derive its existence from any other source, for if it did it would no
longer be a principle. And if it had no beginning it can have no end,
for a beginning that is put an end to will neither be renewed by any
other cause, nor will it produce anything else of itself. All things,
therefore, must originate from one source. Thus it follows, that motion
must have its source in something which is moved by itself, and which
can neither have a beginning nor an end. Otherwise all the heavens
and all nature must perish, for it is impossible that they can of them-
selves acquire any power of producing motion in themselves.
XXVI. As, therefore, it is plain that what is moved by itself must
be eternal, who will deny that this is the general condition and nature
of minds? For, as everything is inanimate which is moved by an im-
pulse exterior to itself, so what is animated is moved by an interior im-
pulse of its own ; for this is the peculiar nature and power of mind. And
if that alone has the power of self-motion, it can neither have had a be-
ginning, nor can it have an end.
Do you, therefore, exercise this mind of yours in the best pursuits.
And the best pursuits are those which consist in promoting the good of
your country. Such employments will speed the flight of your mind to
this its proper abode; and its flight will be still more rapid, if, even
while it is enclosed in the body, it will look abroad, and disengage itself
as much as possible from its bodily dwelling, by the contemplation of
things which are external to itself.
This it should do to the utmost of its power. For the minds of
those who have given themselves up to the pleasures of the body, paying
as it were a servile obedience to their lustful impulses, have violated
the laws of God and man ; and therefore, when they are separated from
their bodies, flutter continually round the earth on which they lived,
and are not allov lve been
ft he Y4ru«*i r cam.— On the
the departure o( the soul from ti«c >.-, . i«i< . .-,• . < Cr-- is n. •
such departure, but that soul and body perish together, and tiuu the soul
is extinguished with the body. Of those who think that the soul does
depart from the body, some believe in its immediate dissolution ; others
fancy that it continfcdsl3TaMsA10O3AaiSph*JMQ^ rs believe that it
lasts forever. There is great &ftpHt*(*ven what the soul is, where it
is, and whence it is tierived : with some, the heart itself (cor ) seems to
5e the soul, hence the exprr> < romto, vtcordts, concordfs; and
i. c.
it, to be the atriitia, as our Kfcatb gmtrailj i»i j»nH indeed the
name Dignities as much, for we u>- '.'•,•• oxpreMKNto «MIMMIIN agfre, to
• anintam efflarf, to expire; animosi, men of spirit; bent atumoti.
men of ^ng; erinimi sfntfntio, according to our real opinion —
.'nintiis is derived from annna. Again, the soul
be fire.
t« wkar is to the heart, the blood, the brain, air.
other* are only eater-
'•any amongst the an
xn-i'w, n . was both a musician and a \< ,
TOMB OF CAECILIA METELLA
Near RODK-.
CICERO 241
and are not allowed to return to this celestial region, till they have been
purified by the revolution of many ages.
Thus saying he vanished, and I awoke from my dream. — On the
Republic, Bk. VI.
TRANSLATION OF C. D. YONGE.
THE CONTEMPT OF DEATH
MARCUS. — THE first thing, then, is to inquire what death, which
seems to be so well understood, really is ; for some imagine death to be
the departure of the soul from the body ; others think that there is no
such departure, but that soul and body perish together, and that the soul
is extinguished with the body. Of those who think that the soul does
depart from the body, some believe in its immediate dissolution ; others
fancy that it continues to exist for a time; and others believe that it
lasts forever. There is great dispute even what the soul is, where it
is, and whence it is derived : with some, the heart itself (cor) seems to
be the soul, hence the expressions, exordcs, vecordes, Concordes; and
that prudent Nasica, who was twice consul, was called Corculus, i. c.
wise-heart ; and JSlius Sextus is described as Egrcgie cordatus homo,
catus .E/iV Sextus — that great unse-heartcd man, sage ^Elius. Empe-
docles imagines the blood, which is suffused over the heart, to be the
soul ; to others, a certain part of the brain seems to be the throne of
the soul : others neither allow the heart itself, nor any portion of the
brain, to be the soul ; but think either that the heart is the seat and abode
of the soul ; or else that the brain is so. Some would have the soul, or
spirit, to be the aninta, as our schools generally agree ; and indeed the
name signifies as much, for we use the expressions animam agerc, to
live ; animam efflare, to expire ; animosi, men of spirit ; bcne animati,
men of right feeling ; exinimi sententia, according to our real opinion —
and the very word animus is derived from aninta. Again, the soul
teems to Zeno the Stoic to be fire.
X. But what I have said as to the heart, the blood, the brain, air,
or fire being the soul, are common opinions : the others are only enter-
tained by individuals; and, indeed, there were many amongst the an-
cients who held singular opinions on this subject, of whom the latest
was Aristoxenus, a man who was both a musician and a philosopher ; he
242 CICERO
maintained a certain straining of the body, like what is called harmony
in music, to be the soul ; and believed that, from the figure and nature of
the whole body, various motions are excited, as sounds are from an
instrument. He adhered steadily to his system, and yet he said some-
thing, the nature of which, whatever it was, had been detailed and
explained a great while before Plato. Xenocrates denied that the soul
had any figure, or anything like a body ; but said it was a number, the
power of which, as Pythagoras had fancied, some ages before, was the
greatest in nature : his master, Plato, imagined a three-fold soul ; a
dominant portion of which, that is to say, reason, he had lodged in the
head, as in a tower ; and the two other parts, namely, anger and desire,
he made subservient to this one, and allotted them distinct abodes, plac-
ing anger in the breast, and desire under the praecordia. But Dicaear-
chus, in that discourse of some learned disputants, held at Corinth,
which he details to us in three books ; in the first book introduces many
speakers ; and in the other two he introduces a certain Pherecrates, an
old man of Phthia, who, as he said, was descended from Deucalion ;
asserting, that there is in fact no such thing at all as a soul ; but that
it is a name, without a meaning ; and that it is idle to use the expression,
"animals," or "animated beings;" that neither men nor beasts have
minds or souls ; but that all that power, by which we act or perceive, is
equally infused into every living creature, and is inseparable from the
body, for if it were not, it would be nothing ; nor is there anything what-
ever really existing except body, which is a single and simple thing, so
fashioned, as to live and have sensations in consequence of the regula-
tions of nature. Aristotle, a man superior to all others, both in genius
and industry (I always except Plato), after having embraced these four
known sorts of principles, from which all things deduce their origin,
imagines that there is a certain fifth nature, from whence comes the
soul ; for to think, to foresee, to learn, to teach, to invent anything, and
many other attributes of the same kind, such as, to remember, to love,
to hate, to desire, to fear, to be pleased or displeased ; these, and others
like them, exist, he thinks, in none of those first four kinds : on such
account he adds a fifth kind, which has no name, and so by a new name
he calls the soul endelechia, as if it were a certain continued and per-
petual motion.
XI. If I nave not forgotten anything unintentionally, these are
the principal opinions concerning the soul. I have omitted Democritus,
a very great man, indeed, but one who deduces the soul from the fortui-
tous concourse of small, light, and round substances ; for, if you believe
CICERO 243
men of his school, there is nothing which a crowd of atoms can not
effect. Which of these opinions is true, some god must determine. It
is an important question for us, which has the most appearance of truth.
Shall we, then, prefer determining between them, or shall we return to
our subject?
A. I wish both, if possible; but it is difficult to mix them ; there-
fore, if without a discussion of them we can get rid of the fears of death,
let us proceed to do so ; but if this is not to be done without explaining
the question about souls, let us have that now, and the other at another
time.
M. I take that plan to be the best, which I perceive you are
inclined to ; for reason will demonstrate that, whichever of the opinions
which I have stated is true, it must follow, then, that death can not be
an evil ; or that it must rather be something desirable, for if either the
heart, or the blood, or the brain, is the soul, then certainly the soul,
being corporeal, must perish with the rest of the body ; if it is air, it will
perhaps be dissolved ; if it is fire, it will be extinguished ; if it is Aris-
toxenus's harmony, it will be put out of tune. What shall I say of
Dicaearchus, who denies that there is any soul? In all these opinions,
there is nothing to affect any one after death ; for all feeling is lost with
life and where there is no sensation, nothing can interfere to affect us.
The opinions of others do, indeed, bring us hope ; if it is any pleasure to
you to think that souls, after they leave the body, may go to heaven as
to a permanent home.
A. I have great pleasure in that thought, and it is what I most
desire; and even if it should not be so, I should still be very willing to
believe it.
M. What occasion have you, then, for my assistance? am I
superior to Plato in eloquence? Turn over carefully his book that
treats of the soul, you will have there all that you can want.
A. I have, indeed, done that, and often ; but, I know not how it
comes to pass, I agree with it whilst I am reading it, but when I have
laid down the book, and begin to reflect with myself on the immortality
of the soul, all that agreement vanishes:
M. How comes that? do you admit this, that souls either exist
after death, or else that they also perish at the moment of death ?
A. I agree to that. And if they do exist, I admit that they are
happy; but if they perish, I can not suppose them to be unhappy, be-
cause, in fact, they have no existence at all. You drove me to that
confession but just now.
244 CICERO
Af. How, then, can you, or why will you, assert that you think
that death is an evil, when it either makes us happy, in the case of the
soul continuing to exist, or, at all events, not unhappy, in the case of
our becoming destitute of all sensation.
XII. A. Explain, therefore, if it is not troublesome to you, first,
if you can, that souls do exist after death ; secondly, should you fail in
that, (and it is a very difficult thing to establish,) that death is free from
all evil ; for I am not without my fears that this itself is an evil ; I do not
mean the immediate deprivation of sense, but the fact that we shall here-
after suffer deprivation.
M. I have the best authority in support of the opinion you desire
to have established, which ought, and generally has, great weight in all
cases. And first, I have all antiquity on that side, which the more near
it is to its origin and divine descent, the more clearly, perhaps, on that
account did it discern the truth in these matters. This very doctrine,
then, was adopted by all those ancients, whom Ennius calls in the Sabine
tongue, Casci, namely, that in death there was a sensation,and that, when
men departed this life, they were not so entirely destroyed as to perish
absolutely. And this may appear from many other circumstances, and
especially from the pontifical rites and funeral obsequies, which men of
the greatest genius would not have been so solicitous about, and would
not have guarded from any injury by such severe laws, but from a firm
persuasion that death was not so entirely a destruction as wholly to
abolish and destroy everything, but rather a kind of transmigration,
as it were, and change of life, which was, in the case of illustrious men
and women, usually a guide to heaven, while in that of others, it was
still confined to the earth, but in such a manner as still to exist From
this, and the sentiments of the Romans,
In heaven Romulus with gods now lives ;
as Ennius said, agreeing with the common belief ; hence, too, Hercules
is considered so great and propitious a god among the Greeks, and from
them he was introduced among us, and his worship has extended even
to the very ocean itself. This is how it was that Bacchus was deified,
the offspring of Semele ; and from the same illustrious fame we receive
Castor and Pollux as gods, who are reported not only to have helped the
Romans to victory in their battles, but to have been the messengers of
their success. What shall we say of Ino, the daughter of Cadmus? is
she not called Leucothea by the Greeks, and Matuta by us? Nay more;
CICBRO 248
is not the whole of heaven (not to dwell on particulars) almost filled
with the offspring of men?
Should I attempt to search into antiquity, and produce from thence
what the Greek writers have asserted, it would appear that even those
wlio are called their principal gods, were taken from among men up into
heaven.
XIII. Examine the sepulchres of those which are shown in
Greece; recollect, for you have been initiated, what lessons are taught
in the mysteries ; then will you perceive how extensive this doctrine is.
But they who were not acquainted with natural philosophy, ( for it did
not begin to be in vogue till many years later,) had not higher belief
than what natural reason could give them; they were not acquainted
with the principles and causes of things; they were often induced by
certain visions, and those generally in the night, to think that those men,
who had departed from this life, were still alive. And this may further
be brought as an irrefragable argument for us to believe that there are
gods, — that there never was any nation so barbarous, nor any people in
the world so savage, as to be without some notion of gods : many have
wrong notions of the gods, for that is the nature and ordinary conse-
quence of bad customs, yet all allow that there is a certain divine nature
and energy. Nor does this proceed from the conversation of men, or
the agreement of philosophers ; it is not an opinion established by insti-
tutions or by laws ; but, no doubt, in every case the consent of all nations
is to be looked on as a law of nature. \Yho is there, then, that does not
lament the loss of his friends, principally from imagining them deprived
of the conveniences of life? Take away this opinion, and you remove
with it all grief ; for no one is afflicted merely on account of a loss sus-
tained by himself. Perhaps we may feel sorry, and grieve a little ; but
that bitter lamentation, and those mournful tears, have their origin in
our apprehensions that he whom we loved is deprived of all the advan-
tages of life, and is sensible of his loss. And we are led to this opinion
by nature, without any arguments or any instruction.
XIV. But the greatest proof of all is, that nature herself gives a
silent judgment in favor of the immortality of the soul, inasmuch as all
are anxious, and that to a great degree, about the things which concern
futurity; —
One plants that future ages shall enjoy,
as Statius said in his Synephebi. What is his object in doing so, except
that he is interested in posterity? Shall the industrious hubandman.
246 CICERO
then, plant trees the fruit of which he shall never see ? and shall not the
great man found laws, institutions, and a republic? What does the
procreation of children imply — and our care to continue our names —
and our adoptions — and our scrupulous exactness in drawing up wills —
and the inscriptions on monuments, and panegyrics, but that our
thoughts run on futurity? There is no doubt but a judgment may be
formed of nature in general, from looking at each nature in its most
perfect specimens ; and what is a more perfect specimen of a man, than
those who look on themselves as born for the assistance, the protection,
and the preservation of others? Hercules has gone to heaven; he
never would have gone thither had he not, whilst amongst men, made
that road for himself. These things are of old date, and have, besides,
the sanction of universal religion.
XV. What will you say ? what do you imagine that so many and
such great men of our republic, who have sacrificed their lives for its
good, expected? Do you believe that they thought that their names
should not continue beyond their lives ? None ever encountered death
for their country, but under a firm persuasion of immortality ! Themi-
stocles might have lived at his ease ; so might Epaminondas ; and, not
to look abroad and amongst the ancients for instances, so might I
myself. But, somehow or other, there clings to our minds a certain
presage of future ages ; and this both exists most firmly and appears
most clearly, in men of the loftiest genius and greatest souls. Take
away this, and who would be so mad as to spend his life among toils
and dangers ? I speak of those in power, What are the poet's views
but to be ennobled after death? What else is the object of these lines —
Behold old Ennius here, who erst
Thy fathers' great exploits rehearsed ?
He is challenging the reward of glory from those men whose ancestors
he himself had ennobled by his poetry. And in the same spirit he says
in another passage —
Let none with tears my funeral grace, for I
Claim from my works an immortality.
Why do I mention poets ? the very mechanics are desirous of fame after
death. Why did Phidias include a likeness of himself in the shield of
Minerva, when he was not allowed to inscribe his name on it ? What
do our philosophers think on the subject? do they not put their names
to those very books which they write on the contempt of glory If, then,
CICBRO 247
universal consent is the voice of nature, and if it is the general opinion
everywhere, that those who have quitted this life are still interested in
something; we also must subscribe to that opinion. And if we think
that men of the greatest abilities and virtue see most clearly into the
power of nature, because they themselves are her most perfect work ;
it is very probable that, as every great man is especially anxious to bene-
fit posterity, there is something of which he himself will be sensible after
death.
XVI. But as we are led by nature to think there are gods, and
as we discover, by reason, of what description they are, so, by the con-
sent of all nations, we are induced to believe that our souls survive ; but
where their habitation is, and of what character they eventually are,
must be learned from reason. The want of any certain reason on which
to argue has given rise to the idea of shades below, and to those fears,
which you seem, not without reason, to despise : for as our bodies fall
to the ground, and are covered with earth (humus), from whence we
derive the expression to be interred (humari), that has occasioned men
to imagine that the dead continue, during the remainder of their ex-
istence, under ground ; which opinion has drawn after it many errors,
which the poets have increased ; for the theater, being frequented by
a large crowd, among which are women and children, is wont to be
greatly affected on hearing such pompous verses as these —
Lo ! here I am, who scarce could gain this place,
Through stony mountains and a dreary waste ;
Through cliffs, whose sharpen'd stones tremendous hung,
Where dreadful darkness spread itself around :
and the error prevailed so much, though, indeed, at present it seems to
me to be removed, that although men knew that the bodies of the dead
had been burned, yet they conceived such things to be done in the in-
fernal regions as could not be executed or imagined without a body ; for
they could not conceive how disembodied souls could exist ; and, there-
fore, they looked out for some shape or figure. This was surely the
origin of all that account of the dead in Homer. This was the idea
that caused my friend Appius to frame his Necromancy ; and this is how
there got about that idea of the lake of Avernus, in my neighborhood. —
From whence the souls of undistinguished shape,
Gad in thick shade, rush from the open gate
Of Acheron, vain phantoms of the dead.
248 CICERO
And they must needs have these appearances speak, which is not possible
without a tongue, and a palate, and jaws, and without the help of lungs
and sides, and without some shape or figure ; for they could see nothing
by their mind alone, they referred all to their eyes. To withdraw the
mind from sensual objects, and abstract our thoughts from what we are
accustomed to, is an attribute of great genius : I am persuaded, indeed,
that there were many such men in former ages : but Pherecydes the
Syrian is the first on record who said that the souls of men were im-
mortal ; and he was a philosopher of great antiquity in the reign of
my namesake Tullius. His disciple Pythagoras greatly confirmed this
opinion, who came into Italy in the reign of Tarquin the Proud ; and all
that country which is call Great Greece was occupied by his school, and
he himself was held in high honor, and had the greatest authority; and
the Pythagorean sect was for many ages after in such great credit,
that all learning was believed to be confined to that name.
XVII. But I return to the ancients. They scarcely ever gave
any reason for their opinion but what could be explained by numbers
or definitions. It is reported of Plato, that he came into Italy to make
himself acquainted with the Pythagoreans; and that when there,
amongst others, he made an acquaintance with Archytas and Timaeus,
and learned from them all the tenets of the Pythagoreans ; and that he
not only was of the same opinion with Pythagoras concerning the
immortality of the soul, but that he also brought reasons in support of
it ; which, if you have nothing to say against it, I will pass over, and say
no more at present about all this hope of immortality.
A. What, will you leave me when you have raised my expecta-
tions so high ? I had rather, so help me Hercules ! be mistaken with
Plato, whom I know how much you esteem, and whom I admire myself
from what you say of him, than be in the right with those others.
M . I commend you ; for, indeed, I could myself willingly be mis-
taken in his company. Do we, then, doubt as we do in other cases,
(though I think there is very little room for doubt in this case, for the
mathematicians prove the facts to us,) that the earth is placed in the
midst of the world, being as it were a sort of point, which they call a
kentron, surrounded by the whole heavens ; and that such is the nature
of the four principles, which are the generating causes of all things,
that they have equally divided amongst them the constituents of all
bodies; moreover that earthy and humid bodies are carried at equal
angles, by their own weight and ponderosity, into the earth and sea ; that
the other two parts consist one of fire and the other of air? As thf two
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former are carried by their gravity and weight into the middle region
of the world ; so these, on the other hand, ascend by right lines into the
celestial regions ; either because, owing to their intrinsic nature, they arc
always endeavoring to reach the highest place, or else because lighter
bodies are natually repelled by heavier ; and as this is notoriously the
case, it must evidently follow, that souls, when once they have departed
from the body, whether they are animal, (by which term I mean capable
of breathing,) or of the nature of fire, must mount upwards : but if the
soul is some number, as some people assert, speaking with more subtlety
than clearness, or if it is that fifth nature, for which it would be more
correct to say that we have not give a name to, than that we do not cor-
rectly understand it — still it is too pure and perfect, not to go to a great
distance from the earth. Something of this sort, then, we must believe
the soul to be, that we may not commit the folly of thinking that so
active a principle lies immerged in the heart or brain ; or as Empedocles
would have it, in the blood.
XVIII. We will pass over Dicaearchus, with his contemporary
and fellow-disciple Aristaxenus, both, indeed, men of learning. One
of them seems never even to have been affected with grief, as he could
not perceive that he had a soul ; while the other is so pleased with his
musical compositions, that he endeavors to show an analogy betwixt
them and souls. Now, we may understand harmony to arise from the
intervals of sounds, whose various compositions occasion many har-
monies ; but I do not see how a disposition of members, and the figure
of a body without a soul, can occasion harmony ; he had better, learned
as he is, leave these speculations to his master, Aristotle, and follow his
own trade, as a musician ; good advice is given him in that Greek
proverb, —
Apply your talents where you best are skill'd.
I will have nothing at all to do with that fortuitous concourse of individ-
ual light and round bodies, notwithstanding Democritus insists on their
being warm, and having breath, that is to say, life. But this soul, which
is compounded of either of the four principles from which we assert
that all things are derived, is of inflamed air, as seems particularly to
have been the opinion of Panaetius, and must necessarily mount up-
wards ; for air and fire have no tendency downwards, but always ascend ;
so should they be dissipated, that must be at some distance from the
earth ; but should they remain, and preserve their original state, it is
clearer still that they must be carried heavenward ; and this gross an«l
V 3-16
250 CICERO
concrete air, which is nearest the earth, must be divided and broken by
them ; for the soul is warmer, or rather hotter than that air, which I
just now called gross and concrete ; and this may be made evident from
this consideration, — that our bodies, being compounded of the earthy
class of principles, grow warm by the heat of the soul.
XIX. We may add, that the soul can the more easily escape from
this air, which I have often named, and break through it; because
nothing is swifter than the soul ; no swiftness is comparable to the swift*
ness of the soul ; which, should it remain uncorrupt and without altera-
tion, must necessarily be carried on with such velocity as to penetrate
and divide all this atmosphere, where clouds, and rain, and winds are
formed ; which, in consequence of the exhalations from the earth, is
moist and dark ; but, when the soul has once got above this region, and
falls in with, and recognizes a nature like its own, it then rests upon fires
composed of a combination of thin air and a moderate solar heat, and
does not aim at any higher flight. For then, after it has attained a light-
ness and heat resembling its own, it moves no more, but remains steady,
being balanced, as it were, between two equal weights. That, then is its
natural seat, where is has penetrated to something like itself ; and where,
wanting nothing further, it may be supported and maintained by the
same aliment which nourishes and maintains the stars.
Now, as we are usually incited to all sorts of desires by the stimulus
of the body, and the more so, as we endeavor to rival those who are
in possession of what we long for, we shall certainly be happy when
being rid of these desires and this rivalry : and, that which we do at
present, when, dismissing all other cares, we curiously examine and look
into anything, we shall then do with greater freedom; and we shall
employ ourselves entirely in the contemplation and examination of
things ; because there is naturally in our minds a certain insatiable desire
to know the truth ; and the very region itself where we shall arrive, as
it gives us a more intuitive and easy knowledge of celestial things, will
raise our desires after knowledge. For it was this beauty of the heavens,
as seen even here upon earth, which gave birth to that national and
hereditary philosophy, (as Theophratus calls it,) which was thus ex-
cited to a desire of knowledge. But those persons will in a most
especial degree enjoy this philosophy, who while they were only in-
habitants of this world and enveloped in darkness, were still desirous of
looking into these things with the eye of their mind.
XX. For, if those men now think that they have attained some-
CICBRO 251
thing who have seen the mouth of the Pontus, and those straits which
were passed by the ship called Argo because,
From Argos she did chosen men convey,
Bound to fetch back the golden fleece, their prey ;
or those who have seen the straits of the ocean,
Where the swift waves divide the neighboring shores
Of Europe, and of Africa.
What kind of sight do you imagine that will be, when the whole earth
is laid open to our view? and that, too, not only in its position, form,
and boundaries, nor those parts of it only which are habitable, but those
also that lie uncultivated, through the extremities of heat and cold to
which they are exposed ; for not even now is it with our eyes that we
view what we see, for the body itself has no senses ; but (as the natural-
ists, aye, and even the physicians assure us, who have opened our bodies,
and examined them), there are certain perforated channels from the
seat of the soul to the eyes, ears, and nose; so that frequently, when
either prevented by meditation, or the force of some bodily disorder,
we neither hear nor see, though our eyes and ears are open, and in good
condition ; so that we may easily apprehend that it is the soul itself which
sees and hears, and not those parts which are, as it were, but windows
to the soul ; by means of which, however, she can perceive nothing,
unless she is on the spot, and exerts herself. How shall we account for
the fact, that by the same power of thinking we comprehend the most
different things ; as color, taste, heat, smell, and sound ? which the soul
could never know by her five messengers, unless everything was re-
ferred to her, and she were the sole judge of all. And we shall certainly
discover these things in a more clear and perfect degree when the soul
is disengaged from the body, and has arrived at that goal to which
nature leads her ; for at present, notwithstanding nature has contrived,
with the greatest skill, those channels which lead from the body to the
soul, yet they are, in some way or other, stopped up with earthy and
concrete bodies ; but when we shall be nothing but soul, then nothing
will interfere to prevent our seeing everything in its real substance, and
in its true character.
XXI. It is true, I might expatiate, did the subject require it, on the
many and various objects with which the soul will be entertained in
those heavenly regions : when I reflect on which, I am apt to wonder at
the boldness of some philosophers, who are so struck with admiration
252 CICERO
at the knowledge of nature, as to thank, in an exulting manner, the first
inventor and teacher of natural philosophy, and to reverence him as a
god, for they declare that they have been delivered by his means from
the greatest tyrants, a perpetual terror, and a fear that molested them
by night and day. What is this dread — this fear? what old woman is
there so weak as to fear these things, which you, forsooth, had you not
been acquainted with natural philosophy, would stand in awe of ?
The hallo w'd roofs of Acheron, the dread
Of Orchus, the pale regions of the dead.
And does it become a philosopher to boast that he is not afraid of these
things, and that he has discovered them to be false ? And from this we
may perceive how acute these men were by nature, who, if they had been
left without any instruction would have believed in these things. But
now they have certainly made a very fine acquisition in learning that
when the day of their death arrives they will perish entirely; and, if
that really is the case, for I say nothing either way, what is there agree-
able or glorious in it? Not that I see any reason why the opinion of
Pythagoras and Plato may not be true ; but even although Plato were to
have assigned no reason for his opinion (observe how much I esteem the
man), the weight of his authority would have borne me down; but he
has brought so many reasons, that he appears to me to have endeavored
to convince others, and certainly to have convinced himself.
XXII. But there are many who labor on the other side of the
question, and condemn souls to death, as if they were criminals capitally
convicted ; nor have they any other reason to allege why the immortality
of the soul appears to them to be incredible, except that are are not able
to conceive what sort of thing the soul can be when disentangled from
the body ; just as if they could really form a correct idea as to what sort
of thing it is, even when it is in the body ; what its form, and size, and
abode are ; so that were they able to have a full view of all that is now
hidden from them in a living body, they have no idea whether the soul
would be discernible by them, or whether it is of so fine a texture that it
would escape their sight. Let those consider this, who say that they are
unable to form any idea of the soul without the body, and then they will
see whether they can form any adequate idea of what it is when it is in
the body. For my own part, when I reflect on the nature of the soul, it
appears to me a far more perplexing and obscure question to determine
what is its character while it is in the body, a place which, as it were,
does not belong- to it, than to imagine what it is when it leaves !t, and
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has arrived at the free aether, which is, if I may so say, its proper, its own
habitation. For unless we arc to say that we cannot apprehend the
character or nature of anything which we have never seen, we certainly
may be able to form some notion of God, and of the divine soul when
released from the body. Dicxarchus, indeed, and Aristoxenus, because
it was hard to understand the existence, and substance, and nature of
the soul, asserted that there was no such thing as a soul at all. It is,
indeed, the most difficult thing imaginable, to discern the soul by the
soul. And this, doubtless, is the meaning of the precept of Apollo,
which advises every one to know himself. For I do not apprehend the
meaning of the god to have been, that we should understand our mem-
bers, our stature, and form ; for we are not merely bodies ; nor, when
1 say these things to you, am I addressing myself to your body : when,
therefore, he says, "Know yourself," he says this, "Inform yourself of
the nature of your soul ;" for the body is but a kind of receptacle of the
soul, and whatever your soul does is your own act. To know the soul,
then, unless it had been divine, would not have been a precept of such
excellent wisdom, as to be attributed to a god ; but even though the
soul should not know of what nature itself is, will you say that it does
not even perceive that it exists at all, or that it has motion ? on which is
founded that reason of Plato's, which is explained by Socrates in the
Phaedrus, and inserted by me, in my sixth book of the Republic.
XXIII. "That which is always moved is eternal ; but that which
gives motion to something else, and is moved itself by some external
cause, when that motion ceases, must necessarily cease to exist. That,
therefore, alone, which is self-moved, because it is never forsaken by
itself, can never cease to be moved. Besides, it is the beginning and
principle of motion to everything else ; but whatever is a principle has
no beginning, for all things arise from that principle, and it can not
itself owe its rise to anything else ; for then it would not be a principle
did it proceed from anything else. But if it has no beginning, it never
will have any end ; for a principle which is once extinguished, can not
itself be restored by anything else, nor can it produce anything else
from itself; inasmuch as all things must necessarily arise from some
first cause. And thus it comes about, that the first principle of motion
must arise from that thing which is itself moved by itself; and that
can neither have a beginning nor an end of its existence, for otherwise
the whole heaven and earth would be overset, and all nature would
stand still, and not be able to acquire any force, by the impulse of which
tt might be first set in motion. Seeing, then, that it is clear, that what-
254 CICERO
ever moves itself is eternal, can there be any doubt that the soul is so?
For everything is inanimate which is moved by an external force ; but
everything which is animate is moved by an interior force, which also
belongs to itself. For this is the peculiar nature and power of the soul ;
and if the soul be the only thing in the whole world which has the
power of self-motion, then certainly it never had a beginning, and there-
fore it is eternal."
Now, should all the lower order of philosophers, (for so I think
they may be called, who dissent from Plato and Socrates and that
school,) unite their force, they never would be able to explain anything
so elegantly as this, nor even to understand how ingeniously this con-
clusion is drawn. The soul, then, perceives itself to have motion, and
at the same time that it gets that perception, it is sensible that it de-
rives that motion from its own power, and not from the agency of an-
other; and it is impossible that it should ever forsake itself; and these
premises compel you to allow its eternity, unless you have something
to say against them.
A. I should myself be very well pleased not to have even a
thought arise in my mind against them, so much am I inclined to that
opinion.
XXIV. M. Well then, I appeal to you, if the arguments which
prove that there is something divine in the souls of men are not equally
strong? but if I could account for the origin of these divine properties,
then I might also be able to explain how they might cease to exist;
for I think I can account for the manner in which the blood, and bile,
and phlegm, and bones, and nerves, and veins, and all the limbs, and
the shape of the whole body, were put together and made; aye, and
even as to the soul itself, were there nothing more in it than a principle
of life, then the life of a man might be put upon the same footing as
that of a vine or any other tree, and accounted for as caused by nature ;
for these things, as we say, live. Besides, if desires and aversions were
all that belonged to the soul, it would have them only in common with
the beasts ; but it has, in the first place, memory, and that, too, so in-
finite, as to collect an absolute countless number of circumstances,
which Plato will have to be a recollection of a former life ; for in that
book which is inscribed Menon, Socrates asks a child some questions
in geometry, with reference to measuring a square; his answers are
such as a child would make, and yet the questions are so easy, that
while answering them, one by one, he comes to the same point as if he
had learned geometry. From whence Socrates would infer, that learn-
CICERO 256
ing is nothing more than recollection ; and this topic he explains more
accurately, in the discourse which he held the very day he died ; for he
there asserts that any one who seeming to be entirely illiterate, is yet
able to answer a question well that is proposed to him, does in so doing
manifestly show that he is not learning it then, but recollecting it by his
memory. Nor is it to be accounted for in any other way, how children
come to have notions of so many and such important things, as are im-
planted, and as it were sealed up in their minds, (which the Greeks call
ennoiai,) unless the soul before it entered the body had been well stored
with knowledge. And as it had no existence at all, (for this is the in-
variable doctrine of Plato, who will not admit anything to have a real
existence which had a beginning and an end, and who thinks that that
alone does really exist which is of such a character as what he calls
tidea, and we species,) therefore, being shut up in the body, it could not
while in the body discover what it knows ; but it knew it before, and
brought the knowledge with it, so that we are no longer surprised at its
extensive and multifarious knowledge; nor does the soul clearly dis-
cover its ideas at its first resort to this abode to which it is so unaccus-
tomed, and which is in so disturbed a state ; but after having refreshed
and recollected itself, it then by its memory recovers them ; and, there-
fore, to learn implies nothing more than to recollect. But I am in a
particular manner surprised at memory; for what is that faculty by
which we remember ? what is its force what its nature ? I am not in-
quiring how great a memory Simonides may be said to have had, or
Theodectes, or that Cineas, who was sent to Rome as ambassador from
Pyrrhus, or in more modern times Charmadas ; or very lately, Metro-
dorus, the Scepsian, or our own contemporary, Hortensius ; I am speak-
ing of ordinary memory, and especially of those men who are employed
in any important study or art, the great capacity of whose minds it is
hard to estimate, such numbers of things do they remember.
XXV. Should you ask what this leads to, I think we may under-
stand what that power is, and whence we have it. It certainly proceeds
neither from the heart, nor from the blood, nor from the brain, nor
from atoms ; whether it be air or fire, I know not, nor am I, as those
men are, ashamed in cases where I am ignorant, to own that I am so.
If in any other obscure matter I were able to assert anything positively,
then I would swear that the soul, be it air or fire, is divine. Just think,
I beseech you, — can you imagine this wonderful power of memory to
be sown in, or to be a part of the composition of the earth, or of this
dark and gloomy atmosphere? Though you can not apprehend what it
256 CICERO
is, yet you see what kind of thing it is, or if you do not quite see that,
yet you certainly see how great it is. What then? shall we imagine
that there is a kind of measure in the soul, into which, as into a vessel,
all that we remember is poured ? that indeed is absurd ; for how shall
we form any idea of the bottom, or of the shape or fashion of such a
soul as that ? And again, how are we to conceive how much it is able to
contain? Shall we imagine the soul to receive impressions like wax,
and memory to be marks of the impressions made on the soul ? What
are the characters of the words, what of the facts themselves ? and what,
again, is that prodigious greatness which can give rise to impressions of
so many things ? What, lastly, is that power which investigates secret
things, and is called invention and contrivance? Does that man seem
to be compounded of this earthly, mortal, and perishing nature, who
first invented names for everything, which, if you will believe Pytha-
goras, is the highest pitch of wisdom ? or he, who collected the dispersed
inhabitants of the world, and united them in the bonds of social life? or
he, who confined the sounds of the voice, which used to seem infinite, to
the marks of a few letters ? or he, who first observed the courses of the
planets, their progressive motions, their laws? These were all great
men ; but they were greater still, who invented food, and raiment, and
houses ; who introduced civilization amongst us, and armed us against
the wild beasts ; by whom we were made sociable and polished, and so
proceeded from the necessaries of life to its embellishments. For we
have provided great entertainments for the ears, by inventing and mod-
ulating the variety and nature of sounds ; we have learnt to survey the
stars, not only those that are fixed, but also those which are improperly
called wandering; and the man who has acquainted himself with all
their revolutions and motions, is fairly considered to have a soul re-
sembling the soul of that Being who has created those stars in the
heavens ; for when Archimedes described in a sphere the motions of the
moon, sun, and five planets, he did the very same thing as Plato's God,
in his Timzeus, who made the world ; causing one revolution to adjust
motions differing as much as possible in their slowness and velocity.
Now, allowing that what we see in the world could not be effected with-
out a God, Archimedes could not have imitated the same motions in his
sphere without a divine soul.
XXVI. To me, indeed, it appears that even those studies which
are more common and in greater esteem are not without some divine
energy ; so that I do not consider that a poet can produce a serious
CICERO »7
and sublime poem, without some divine impulse working on his
mind; nor do I think that eloquence, abounding with sonorous words
and fruitful sentences, can flow thus, without something beyond mere
human power. But as to philosophy, that is the parent of all the arts,
what can we call that but, as Plato says, a gift, or as I express it, an
invention of the gods? This it was which first taught us the worship
of the gods ; and then led us on to justice, which arises from the human
race being formed into society: and after that it embued us with mod-
esty, and elevation of soul. This it was which dispersed darkness from
our souls, as it is dispelled from our eyes, enabling us to see all things
that are above or below, the beginning, end, and middle of every thing.
I am convinced entirely, that that which could effect so many and such
great things must be a divine power. For what is memory of words
and circumstances? what, too, is invention? Surely they are things
than which nothing greater can be conceived in a god! for I do not
imagine the gods to be delighted with nectar and ambrosia, or with
Juventas presenting them with a cup; nor do I put any faith in Homer,
who says that Ganymede was carried away by the gods, on account
of his beauty, in order to give Jupiter his wine. Too weak reasons for
doing Laomedon such injury! These were mere inventions of
Homer, who gave his gods the imperfections of men. I would rathei
that he had given men the perfections of the gods! those perfections,
I mean, of uninterrupted health, wisdom, invention, memory. There-
fore the soul (which is, as I say, divine,) is, as Euripides more boldly
expresses it, a god. And thus, if the divinity be air or fire, the soul
of man is the same: for as that celestial nature has nothing earthly or
humid about it, in like manner the soul of man is also free from both
these qualities: but if it is of that fifth kind of nature, first introduced
by Aristotle, then both gods and souls are of the same.
XXVII. As this is my opinion, I have explained it in these very
words, in my book of Consolation. The origin of the soul of man is
not to be found upon earth, for there is nothing in the soul of a mixed
or concrete nature, or that has any appearance of being formed or
made out of the earth; nothing even humid, or airy, or fiery; for what
is there in natures of that kind which has the power of memory, under-
standing, or thought? which can recollect the past; forsee the future;
and conprehend the present? for these capabilities are confined to
divine beings; nor can we discover any source from which men could
derive them, but from God. There is therefore a peculiar nature
and power in the soul, distinct from those natures which are more
:>58 CICBRO
known and familiar to us. Whatever, then, that is which thinks, and
which has understanding, and volition, and a principle of life, is heav-
enly and divine, and on that account must necessarily be eternal : nor
can God himself, who is known to us, be conceived to be anything else
except a soul free and unembarrassed, distinct from all mortal concre-
tion, acquainted with everything, and giving motion to everything, and
itself endued with perpetual motion.
XXVIII. Of this kind and nature is the intellect of man. Where,
then, is this intellect seated, and of what character is it? where is your
own, and what is its character? are you able to tell? If I have not
faculties for knowing all that I could desire to know, will you not even
allow me to make use of those which I have ? The soul has not suf-
ficient capacity to comprehend itself; yet, the soul, like the eye, though
it has no distinct view of itself, sees other things : it does not see (which
is of least consequence) its own shape ; perhaps not, though it possibly
may ; but we will pass that by : but it certainly sees that it has vigor,
sagacity, memory, motion, and velocity; these are all great, divine, eter-
nal properties. What its appearance is, or where it dwells, it is not
necessary even to inquire. As when we behold, first of all, the beauty
and brilliant appearance of the heavens; secondly, the vast velocity of
its revolutions, beyond power of our imagination to conceive ; then the
vicissitudes of nights and days; the four-fold division of the seasons,
so well adapted to the ripening of the fruits of the earth, and the tem-
perature of our bodies ; and after that we look up to the sun, the mod-
erator and governor of all these things ; and view the moon, by the in-
crease and decrease of its light, making, as it were, and appointing our
holy days ; and see the five planets, borne on in the same circle, divided
into twelve parts, preserving the same course with the greatest regu-
larity, but with utterly dissimilar motions amongst themselves ; and the
nightly appearance of the heaven, adorned on all sides with stars ; then,
the globe of the earth, raised above the sea, and placed in the center
of the universe, inhabited and cultivated in its two opposite extrem-
ities ; one of which, the place of our habitation, is situated towards the
north pole, under the seven stars : —
Where the cold northern blasts, with horrid sound,
Harden to ice the snowy cover'd ground, —
the other, towards the south pole, is unknown to us ; but is called by
the Greeks antichthona : the other parts are uncultivated, because they
CICERO J59
are either frozen with cold, or burnt up with heat : but where we dwell,
it never fails in its season,
To yield a placid sky, to bid the trees
Assume the lively verdure of their leaves:
The vine to bud, and, joyful in its shoots,
Foretell the approaching vintage of its fruits:
The ripen'd corn to sing, whilst all around
Full riv'lets glide ; and flowers deck the ground : —
then the multitude of cattle, fit part for food, part for tilling the ground,
others for carrying us, or for clothing us ; and man himself, made as
it were on purpose to contemplate the heavens and the gods, and to pay
adoration to them; lastly, the whole earth, and wide extending seas,
given to man's use. When we view these, and numberless other things,
can we doubt that they have some being who presides over them, or
has made them (if, indeed, they have been made, as is the opinion of
Plato, or if, as Aristotle thinks, they are eternal), or who at all events
is the regulator of so immense a fabric and so great a blessing to men ?
Thus, though you see not the soul of man, as you see not the Deity,
yet, as by the contemplation of his works you are led to acknowledge
a God, so you must own the divine power of the soul, from its remem-
bering things, from its invention, from the quickness of its motion, and
from all the beauty of virtue. Where, then, is it seated, you will say ?
XXIX. In my opinion it is seated in the head, and I can bring
you reasons for my adopting that opinion. At present, let the soul
reside where it will, you certainly have one in you. Should you ask
what its nature is? It has one peculiarly its own ; but admitting it to
consist of fire, or air, it does not affect the present question ; only ob-
serve this, that as you are convinced there is a God, though you are
ignorant where he resides, and what shape he is of ; in like manner you
ought to feel assured that you have a soul, though you can not satisfy
yourself of the place of its residence, nor its form. In our knowledge
of the soul, unless we are grossly ignorant of natural philosophy, we
can not but be satisfied that it has nothing but what is simple, unmixed,
uncompounded, and single ; and if this is admitted, then it can not be
separated, nor divided, nor dispersed, nor parted, and therefore it can
not perish ; for to perish implies a parting asunder, a division, a dis-
union of those parts which, whilst it subsisted, were held together by
some band ; and it was because he was influenced by these and similar
reasons that Socrates neither looked out for anybody to plead for him
260 CICERO
when he was accused, nor begged any favor from his judges, but main-
tained a manly freedom, which was the effect not of pride, but of the
true greatness of his soul : and on the last day of his life, he held a long
discourse on this subject; and a few days before, when he might have
been easily freed from his confinement, he refused to be so, and when
he had almost actually hold of that deadly cup, he spoke with the air
of a man not forced to die, but ascending into heaven.
XXX. For so indeed he thought himself, and thus he spoke:—
'That there were two ways, and that the souls of men, at their depar-
ture from the body, took different roads, for those which were polluted
with vices, that are common to men, and which had given themselves
up entirely to unclean desires, and had become so blinded by them as
to have habituated themselves to all manner of debauchery and pro-
fligacy, or to have laid detestable schemes for the ruin of their country,
took a road wide of that which led to the assembly of the gods : but
they who had preserved themselves upright and chaste, and free from
the slightest contagion of the body, and had always kept themselves as
far as possible at a distance from it, and whilst on earth, had proposed
to themselves as a model the life of the gods, found the return to those
beings from whom they had come an easy one." Therefore he argues,
that all good and wise men should take example from the swans, who
are considered sacred to Apollo, not without reason, but particularly
because they seem to have received the gift of divination from him, by
which, foreseeing how happy it is to die, they leave this world with
singing and joy. Nor can any one doubt of this, unless it happens to
us who think with care and anxiety about the soul, (as is often the case
with those who look earnestly at the setting sun,) to lose the sight of
it entirely : and so the mind's eye viewing itself, sometimes grows dull,
and for that reason we become remiss in our contemplation. Thus our
reasoning is borne about, harassed with doubts and anxieties, not know-
ing how to proceed, but measuring back again those dangerous tracts
which it has passed, like a boat tossed about on the boundless ocean.
But these reflections are of long standing, and borrowed from the
Greeks. But Cato left this world in such a manner, as if he were de-
lighted that Tie had found an opportunity of dying; for that God who
presides in us, forbids our departure hence without his leave. But
when God himself has given us a just cause, as formerly he did to
Socrates, and lately to Cato, and often to many others, — in such a case,
certainly every man of sense would gladly exchange this darkness, for
that light: not that he would forcibly break from the chains that held
CICERO 261
him, for that would be against the law ; but like a man released from
prison by a magistrate, or some lawful authority, so he too would walk
away, being released ami discharged by God. For the whole life of
a philosopher is, as the same philosopher says,, a meditation on death.
— Tusculan Disputations, Bk. 1.
TRANSLATION OF C a YONGE.
361
LUCRETIUS
TITUS LUCRETIUS CARUS was born of a noble family about 98 B. C.
and died about 55 B. C. Practically nothing further is known of his
life.
Lucretius was a disciple of Epicurus and his poem, De Rerum Na-
tura (On the Nature of Things), molds the Epicurean doctrines into
verse. It will be remembered that Epicurus both accepted in a modified
way the atomic theory of Demokritos, and maintained that the chief
good in life was the calm enjoyment of the nobler forms of pleasure,
free from all superstition and error. We have given below Lucretius'
arguments for the theory that the whole universe is but the result of the
concourse of purposeless atoms, and his application of this theory to the
question of life after death. Though his words are the best expression
of the thought of his school, he was no mere imitator : whatever thought
he expressed he had made his own, and his whole poem blazes with the
fire of genius. He is the most vigorous of Latin poets, and probably
the most forceful thinker in verse that the world has ever known.
PRINCIPLES OF THE ATOMIC THEORY
TERROR and darkness of the mind, therefore, it is not the rays of the
sun, or the bright shafts of day, that must dispel, but reason and the
contemplation of nature; of which our first principle shall hence take its
commencement, THAT NOTHING is EVER DIVINELY GENERATED FROM
NOTHING. For thus it is tliat fear restrains all men, because they ob-
serve many things effected on the earth and in heaven, of which effects
they can by no means see the causes and therefore think that they are
wrought by divine power. For which reasons, when we shall have
dearly seen that NOTHING CAN BE PRODUCED FROM NOTHING, we shall
then have a more accurate perception of that of which we are in search,
and shall understand whence each individual thing is generated, and
how all things are done without the agency of the gods.
For if things came forth from nothing, every kind of thing might
be produced from all things; nothing would require seed. In the first
place, men might spring from the sea; the scaly tribe, and birds, might
spring from the earth; herds, and other cattle, might burst from the
sky; the cultivated fields, as well as the deserts, might contain every
kind of wild animal, without any settled law of production: nor would
the same fruits be constant to the same trees, but would be changed;
and all trees might bear all kinds of fruit. Since, when there should
not be generative elements for each production, how could a certain
parent-producer remain invariable for all individual things? But now,
because all things are severally produced from certain seeds, each is pro-
duced, and comes forth into the regions of light, from that spot in
which the matter, and first elements of each, subsist. And for this cause
all things cannot be produced from all, inasmuch as there are distinct
and peculiar faculties in certain substances.
Besides, why do we see the rose put forth in spring, com in summer
heat, and vines under the influence of autumn, if it be not because, when
the determinate seeds of things have united together at their proper
time, whatever is produced appears while the seasons are favorable, and
while the vigorous earth securely brings forth her tender productions
into the regions of light. But if these were generated from nothing,
264 LUCRETIUS
they might arise suddenly at indefinite periods, and at unsuitable sea-
sons of the year, inasmuch as there would be no original elements,
which might be restrained from a generative combination at any season,
however inconvenient.
Nor, moreover, would there be need of time for the coming to-
gether of seed for the growth of things, if they could grow out of noth-
ing. For young men might on a sudden be formed from puny infants,
and groves, springing up unexpectedly, might dart forth from the
earth ; of which things it is plain that none happen, since all things grow
gradually, as is fitting, from unvarying atoms, and, as they grow, pre-
serve their kind, so that you may understand that all things individually
are enlarged and nourished from their own specific matter.
Add to this, that the earth cannot furnish her cheering fruits with-
out certain rains in the year ; nor, moreover, can the nature of animals,
if kept from food, propagate their kind, and sustain life; so that you
may rather deem that many elements are common to many things, (as
we see letters common to many words), than that any thing can exist
without its proper elements.
Still further, why could not nature produce men of such a size that
they might ford the sea on foot, and rend great mountains with their
hands, and outlast in existence many ages of human life, if it be not be-
cause certain matter has been assigned for producing certain things,
from which matter it is fixed what can or cannot arise ? It must be ad-
mitted therefore, that nothing can be made from nothing, since things
have need of seed, from which all individually being produced, may be
brought forth into the gentle air of heaven.
Lastly, since we observe that cultivated places excel the unculti-
vated, and yield to our hands better fruits, we may see that there are in
the ground the primitive elements of things, which we, in turning the
fertile glebe with the ploughshare, and subjugating the soil of the earth,
force into birth. But were there no such seeds, you might see things
severally grow up and become much better of their own accord without
our labor.
Add, too, that nature resolves each thing into its own constituent
elements, and DOES NOT REDUCE ANY THING TO NOTHING.
For if any thing were perishable in all its parts, every thing might
then dissolve, being snatched suddenly from before our eyes ; for there
would be no need of force to produce a separation of its parts, and break
their connexion. Whereas now, since all things individually consist of
eternal seed, nature does not suffer the destruction of any thing to be
LUCRETIUS -',o
seen, until such power assail them as to sever them with a blow, or
penetrate inwardly through the vacant spaces, and dissolve the parts.
Besides, if time utterly destroys whatever things it removes through
length of age, consuming all their constituent matter, whence does
Venus restore to the light of life the race of animals according to their
kinds? Whence does the variegated earth nourish and develop them,
when restored, affording them sustenance according to their kinds?
Whence do pure fountains, and eternal rivers flowing from afar, supply
the sea? Whence does the aether feed the stars? For infinite time
already past, and length of days, ought to have consumed all things
which are of mortal consistence: but if those elements, of which this
sum of things consists and is renewed, have existed through that long
space, and that past duration of time, they are assuredly endowed with
an immortal nature. Things therefore cannot return to nothing.
Further, the same force and cause might destroy all things indis-
criminately, unless an eternal matter held them more or less bound by
mutual connexion. For a mere touch, indeed, would be a sufficient
cause of destruction, supposing that there were no parts of eternal con-
sistence, but all perishable, the union of which any force might dissolve.
But now, because various connexions of elements unite together, and
matter is eternal, things continue of unimpaired consistence, until some
force of sufficient strength be found to assail them, proportioned to the
texture of each. No thing, therefore, relapses into non-existence, but
all things at dissolution return to the first principles of matter.
Lastly, you may say, perhaps, the showers of rain perish, when
Father ./Ether has poured them down into the lap of Mother Earth.
But it is not so; for hence the smiling fruits arise, and the branches be-
come verdant on the trees; the trees themselves increase, and are
weighed down with produce. Hence, moreover, is nourished the race
of man, and that of beasts; hence we see joyous cities abound with
youth, and the leafy woods resound on every side with newly fledged
birds; hence the weary cattle, sleek in the rich pastures, repose their
bodies, and theVhite milky liquor flows from their distended udders;
hence the new offspring gambol sportive, with tottering limbs, over the
tender grass, their youthful hearts exhilarated with pure milk. Things,
therefore, do not utterly perish, which seem to do so, since Nature
recruits one thing from another, nor suffers any thing to be produced,
unless its production be furthered by the death of another.
Attend, now 'further: since I have shown that things cannot be
produced from nothing, and also that, when produced, they cannot
7 3-17
266 LUCRETIUS
return to nothin, yet, lest haply thou shouldst begin to distrust my
words, because the primary particles of things cannot be discerned by
the eye, hear, in addition, what substances thou thyself must necessarily
confess to exist, although impossible to be seen.
In the first place, the force of the wind, when excited, lashes the
sea, agitates the tall ships, and scatters the clouds ; at times, sweeping
over the earth with an impetuous hurricane, it strews the plains with
huge trees, and harasses the mountain-tops with forest-rending blasts;
so violently does the deep chafe with fierce roar and rage with menacing
murmur. The winds, then, are invisible bodies, which sweep the sea,
the land, the clouds of heaven, and, agitating them, carry them along
with a sudden tornado. Not otherwise do they rush forth, and spread
destruction, than as when a body of liquid water is borne along in an
overwhelming stream, which a vast torrent from the lofty mountains
swells with large rain-floods, dashing together fragments of woods and
entire groves ; nor can the strong bridges sustain the sudden force of
the sweeping water, with such overwhelming violence does the river,
turbid with copious rain, rush against the 0/>/>o.n'n£«mounds; it scatters
ruin with a mighty uproar, and rolls huge rocks under its waters; it
rushes on triumphant wheresoever any thing opposes its waves. Thus,
therefore, must the blasts of the wind also be borne along ; which (when,
like a mighty flood, they have bent their force in any direction) drive
all things before them, and overthrow them with repeated assaults, and
sometimes catch them up in a writhing vortex and rapidly 'bear them off
in a whirling hurricane. Wherefore, I repeat, the. winds «are substances,
though invisible, since in their effects, and modes of operation, they are
found to rival mighty rivers, which are of manifest bodily substance.
Moreover we perceive various odors of objects, and yet never see
them approaching our nostrils. Nor do we behold violent heat, or dis-
tinguish cold with our eyes ; nor are we in the habit of viewing sounds ;
all which things, however, must of necessity consist of a corporeal na-
ture, since they have the power of striking the sense : FOR NOTHING,
EXCEPT BODILY SUBSTANCE, CAN TOUCH OR BE TOUCHED.
Further, garments, when suspended upon a shore on which waves
are broken, grow moist ; the same, when spread out in the sun, become
dry; yet neither has it been observed how the moisture of the water
settled in them, nor, on the other hand, how it escaped under the influ-
ence of the heat. The moisture, therefore, is dispersed into minute par-
ticles, which our eyes can by no means perceive.
Besides, in the course of many revolutions of the sun, a ring upon
LUCRETIUS M
the finger is made somewhat thinner by wearing it; the fall of the drop
from the eaves hollows a stone ; the crooked share of the plough, though
made of iron, imperceptibly decreases in the fields ; even the stone pave-
ments of the streets we see worn by the feet of the multitude ; and the
brazen statues, which stand near the gates, show their right hands made
smaller by the touch of people frequently saluting them, and passing by.
These objects, therefore, after they have been worn, we observe to be-
come diminished ; but what particles take their departure on each par-
ticular occasion, jealous nature has withheld from us the faculty of
seeing.
Lastly, whatever substances time and nature add little by little to
objects, obliging them to increase gradually, those substances no acute-
ness of vision, however earnestly exerted, can perceive ; nor, moreover,
whatever substances waste away through age and decay ; nor can you
discern what the rocks, which overhang the sea, and are eaten by the
corroding salt of the ocean, lose every time that they are washed by the
waves. Nature, therefore, carries on her operations by imperceptible
particles.
Now, however, are all things held enclosed by corporeal substance ;
for there is a VOID in things ; a truth which it will be useful for you, in
reference to many points, to know ; and which will prevent you from
wandering in doubt, and from perpetually inquiring about the ENTIRE
OF THINGS, and from being distrustful of my words. Wherefore, / say,
there is space INTANGIBLE, EMPTY, and VACANT. If this were not the
case, things could by no means be moved ; for that which is the quality
of body, namely, to obstruct and to oppose, would be present at all
times, and would be exerted against all bodies; nothing, therefore,
would be able to move forward, since nothing would begin to give way.
But now, throughout the sea and land and heights of heaven, we see
many things moved before our eyes in various ways and by various
means, which, if there were no void, would not so much want their
active motion, as being deprived of it, as they would, properly speaking,
never by any means have been produced at all ; since matter, crowded
together on all sides, would have remained at rest, and have been unable
to act.
Besides, although some things may be regarded as solid, yet you
may, for the following reasons, perceive them to be of a porous con-
sistence. In rocks and caves, the liquid moisture of the waters pene-
trates their substance, and all parts weep, as it were, with abundant
drops ; food distributes itself through the whole of the body in animals;
XX LUCRETIUS
the groves increase, and yield their fruits in their season, because nour-
ishment is diffused through the whole of the trees, even from the lowest
roots, over all the trunks and branches ; voices pass through the walls,
and fly across the closed apartments of houses ; keen frost penetrates to
the very marrow of our bones ; which kind of effects, unless there were
void spaces in bodies, where the several particles might pass, you would
never by any means observe to take place.
Lastly, why do we see some things exceed other things in weight,
though of no greater shape and bulk? For, if there is just as much
substance in a ball of wool as there is in a ball of lead, it is natural that
they should weigh the same, since it is the property of all bodily sub-
stance to press every thing downwards ; but the nature of a VOID, on the
contrary, continues without weight. That body, therefore, which is
equally large with another, and is evidently lighter, shows plainly that
it contains a greater portion of VACUITY. But the heavier body, on the
other hand, indicates that there is in it more material substance, and
that it comprises much less empty space.
That, therefore, which we are now, by the aid of searching argu-
ment, investigating, that, .namely, which we call VOID , is doubtless mixed
among material substances.
In considering these matters, I am obliged to anticipate that objec-
tion which some imagine, lest it should seduce you from the truth. They
say, for instance, that water yields to fishes pushing forwards, and opens
liquid passages, since the fish leave spaces behind them, into which the
yielding waters may make a conflux ; so also that other things may be
moved among themselves, and change their place, although all parts of
space be full. But this notion, it is evident, has been wholly conceived
from false reasoning. For in what direction, I pray, will fish be able to
go forward, if the water shall not give them room? Or in what direc-
tion, moreover, will the water have power to yield, supposing the fish
shall have no power to go forward to divide it? Either, therefore, we
must deny motion to all bodies whatsoever, or we must admit that vac-
uity is more or less inherent in all material substances, whence every
thing that moves derives the first commencement of its motion.
Lastly, if two broad and flat bodies, after having come into colli-
sion, suddenly start asunder, it is clear that air must necessarily take
possession of -all the vacuum which is then formed between the bodies.
And further, although that air may quickly unite to flow into th* vacan-
cy, with blasts blowing rapidly from all sides, yet the whole spact will
not be able to be filled at once ; for the air must of necessity occupy some
LUCRETIUS ft J
part first, then another, till in succession all parts be occupied.
But if any person perchance, when the bodies have started asunder,
thinks that that separation is thus effected by reason that the air con-
denses itself, he is in error; for a vacuum is then formed between the
bodies, which was not there before, and the part likewise behind the
bodies, which was vacant before, is filled ; nor can air be condensed in
such a way; nor, even if it could, would it have the power, I think, to
draw itself into itself, and unite its particles together without the aid of
a void. For which reason, although you may long hesitate, alleging
many objections, you must nevertheless at last confess that there is
vacuum in bodies.
I have the ability, moreover, to collect credit for my doctrines, by
adducing many additional arguments. But these small traces which I
have indicated will be sufficient for a sagacious mind ; traces by which,
indeed, you yourself may discover others. For as dogs, when they have
once lighted upon certain tracks on the path, very frequently find by
their scent the lair of a wild beast that ranges over the mountains,
though covered over with leaves; so you yourself will be able, in such
matters as these, to note, of your own sagacity, one principle after an-
other, and to penetrate every dark obscurity, and thence to elicit truth.
But if you shall be slow to assent, Oh Memmius, or if you shall at
all shrink back from the subject, I can still certainly give you the follow-
ing assurance. My tongue, so agreeable to you, will have the power of
pouring forth from my well-stored breast such copious draughts from
mighty sources, that I fear lest slow old age may creep over our limbs,
and break down the gates of life within us, before all the abundance of
arguments in my verses, concerning any one subject, can have been
poured into your ears. But now, that I may resume my efforts to com-
plete in verse the weaving of the web wihch I have begun, give me a
little more of your attention.
As it is, therefore, all nature of itself has consisted, and consists,
of two parts ; for there are bodily substances, and vacant space, in which
these substances are situate, and in which they are moved in different
directions. For the common perception of all men shows that there is
corporeal consistence ; of the existence of which, unless the belief shall
be first firmly established, there will be no principle by reference to
which we may succeed, by any means whatever, in setting the mind with
argument concerning matters not obvious to sense.
To proceed then, if there were no place, and no space which we call
vacant, bodies could not be situated any where, nor could at all move
270 LUCRETIUS
any whither in different directions ; a fact which we have shown to you
a little before.
Besides, there is nothing which you can say is separate from all
bodily substance, and distinct from empty space ; which would, indeed,
be as it were a third kind of nature. For whatsoever shall exist, must in
itself be something, either of large bulk, or ever so diminutive, provided
it be at all ; when, if it shall be sensible to the touch, however light and
delicate, it will increase the number of bodies, and be ranked in the mul-
titude of them ; but if it shall be intangible, inasmuch as it cannot hinder
in any part any object proceeding to pass through it, it tten, you may be
sure, will be the empty space which we call a vacuum.
Moreover, whatsoever shall exist of itself, will either do something,
or will be obliged TO SUFFER other things acting upon it, or will simply
BE, so that other things may exist and be done in it. But nothing can
DO OR SUFFER without being possessed of bodily substance, nor, more-
over, afford place for acting and suffering, unless it be empty and vacant
space. No third nature, therefore, distinct in itself, besides vacant space
and material substance, can possibly be left undiscovered in the sum of
things ; no third kind of being, which can at any time fall under the
notice of our senses, or which any one can find out by the exercise of his
reason.
For whatsoever other things are said to be, you will find them to
be either necessary ADJUNCTS of these two things, or accidents of them.
A necessary ADJUNCT is that which can never "be separated and disjoined
from its body without a disunion attended with destruction to that body;
as the weight of a stone, the heat of fire, the fluidity of water ; sensibility
to touch in all bodies, insensibility to touch in empty space. On the other
hand, such things as slavery, poverty, riches, liberty, war, concord, and
other things, by the coming or going of which the nature of the subject
affected remains uninjured, these we are accustomed (as is proper) to
Call ACCIDENTS.
Time, likewise, is not an existence in itself, but it is merely our
understanding that collects from things themselves what HAS BEEN DONE
in the past age ; what also is PRESENT; what, moreover, MAY FOLLOW
afterwards. And it must be owned that no one has conceived of time
existing by itself apart from progressive motion and quiet rest.
Moreover, when writers say that Helen WAS carried off, and that
the Trojan people WERE subdued in war, we must take care lest, per-
chance, those "writers induce us to admit that those events, vis., the* ab-
duction of Helen and the subjugation of the Trojans, WERE of them-
LUCRETIUS til
selves ; when time, irrevocably past, has carried away those generations
of men, of whom these transactions were the events or accidents. For
whatever shall have been done, will probably be called an event or acci-
dent, whether occurring to lands, or to legions (that is, men) themselves.
Furthermore, if there were not this bodily substance in things, nor
this room and space in which all things severally are done, the flame
lighted up by the love of Helen's beauty, spreading through the breast
of the Phrygian Paris, would never have kindled the famous contests
of cruel warfare ; nor would the wooden horse have secretly set fire to
the citadel of the Trojans by a nocturnal delivery of Greeks. So that
you may plainly see that all transactions whatsoever do not CONSIST or
EXIST of themselves, as body does, nor are spoken of as existing in the
same way as a vacuum exists ; but rather that you may justly call them
events or accidents of body, or of space in which all transactions are
brought to pass.
Bodies, besides, are partly original elements of things, and partly
those which are formed of a combination of those elements. But those
which are elements of things, no force can break ; for they successfully
resist all force by solidity of substance ; although, perhaps, it seems diffi-
cult to believe that any thing of so solid a substance can be found in
nature ; for the lightning of heaven passes through the walls of houses,
as also noise and voices pass; iron glows, being penetrated by heat, in
the fire ; rocks often burst with fervent heat ; the hardness of gold, losing
its firmness, is dissolved by heat ; the icy coldness of brass, overcome by
flame, melts ; heat, and penetrable cold, enter into the substance of silver,
for we have felt both with the hand, when, as we held silver cups after
our fashion, water was poured into them from above ; so that, as far as
these instances go, there seems to be nothing solid in nature. But be-
cause, however, right reason, and the nature of things, compel me to
hold a contrary opinion, grant me your attention a while, until I make it
plain, in a few verses, that there really exist such bodies as are of a
solid and eternal corporeal substance ; which bodies we prove to be seeds
and primary particles of things, of which the whole generated universe
now consists.
Furthermore, since in things which are produced, or compounded
of matter, there is found empty space, solid matter must exist around it ;
nor can any thing be proved by just argument to conceal vacuity, and
to contain it within its body, unless you admit that that which contains it
is a solid. But that solid can be nothing but a combination of matter,
such as may have the power of keeping a vacuity enclosed. That mat-
272 LUCRETIUS
ter, therefore, which consists of solid body, may be eternal, while other
substances, which are only compounds of this matter, may be dissolved.
In addition, too, if there were no space to be vacant and unoccupied,
all space would be solid. On the other hand, unless there were certain
bodies to fill up completely the places which they occupy, all space,
which any where exists, would be an empty void. Body, therefore, is
evidently distinct from empty space, though each has its place alternate-
ly ; since all space neither exists entirely full, nor, again, entirely empty.
There exist, therefore, certain bodies which can completely fill the places
which they occupy, and distinguish empty space from full.
These bodies, which thus completely fill space, can neither be
broken in pieces by being struck with blows externally, nor, again, can
be decomposed by being penetrated internally ; nor can they be made to
yield if attempted by any other method ; a principle which we have dem-
onstrated to you a little above ; for neither does it seem possible for any
thing to be dashed in pieces without a vacuum, nor to be broken, nor to
be divided into two by cutting ; nor to admit moisture, nor, moreover,
subtle cold, nor penetrating fire, by which operations and means all
things compounded are dissolved. And the more any thing contains
empty space within it, the more it yields when thoroughly tried by these
means. If, therefore, the primary atoms are solid and without void,
they must of necessity be eternal.
Again, unless there had been eternal matter, all things, before this
time, would have been utterly reduced to nothing; and whatsoever
objects we behold would have been reproduced from nothing. But since
I have shown above, that nothing can be produced from nothing, and
that that which has been produced cannot be resolved into nothing, the
primary elements must be of an imperishable substance, into which />n-
mary elements every body may be dissolved, so that matter may be
supplied for the reproduction of things. The primordial elements, there-
fore, are of pure solidity ; nor could they otherwise, preserved, as they
have been, for ages, repair things, as they have done, through that infin-
ite space of time which has elapsed since the commencement of this ma-
terial system.
Besides, if nature had set no limit to the destruction of things, the
particles of matter would, by this time, have been so reduced, by reason
of every former age wasting them, that nobody compounded of them
could, from any certain time, however remote, reach full maturity of
existence. For we see that any thing may be sooner taken to pieces than
put together again : for which reason, that which the infinitely long dur-
LUCRETIUS 273
ation of all past time had broken into parts, disturbing and dissevering
it, could never be repaired in time to come. But now, as is evident,
there remains appointed a certain limit to destruction, since we see every
thing recruited, and stated portions of time assigned to every thing
according to its kind, in which it may be able to attain full vigor to its
kind, in which it may be able to attain full vigor of age.
To this is added, that though the primary particles of matter are
perfectly solid, yet that all things, which are formed of them, may be
rendered soft and yielding, as air, water, earth, fire (in whatever way
they may be produced, and by whatever influence they may be directed) ;
but this happens because there is vacant space intermingled with the
substance of things compounded. But, on the other hand, if the primor-
dial elements of things were soft, how strong flints and iron could be
produced, no explanation could be given, for, by this supposition, nature
will be deprived of all possibility of commencing a foundation. The
primordial elements, therefore, are endowed with pure solidity ; by the
dense combination of which all compound bodies may be closely com-
pacted, and exhibit powerful strength.
Moreover, if you still persist to say that no limit has been appointed
to the dissolution of bodies, you will then, however, have to allow that
there must remain certain dissoluble bodies in the world, which have not
yet been assailed with any trial of their strength. But since dissoluble
bodies are endued only with a fragile nature, it is inconsistent to sup-
pose that they could have lasted through an infinite course of time, if
tltey had been harassed, age after age, with innumerable assaults.
Further, since also a limit has been assigned for the growth of
things according to their kinds, and for their support of life ; and since
it is established by the laws of Nature what each kind can or cannot do ;
and since nothing is changed, but all things remain constant to such a
degree, that even the birds of different plumage, all in succession, show,
existing upon their bodies, spots distinctive of their species ; we must
grant that such bodies must have in them an immutable material sub-
stance. For if the primitive particles of things could be changed, by
being successfully wrought upon in any way, it would then also become
uncertain what might or might not arise into being; it would be uncer-
tain, moreover, how far limited power, and a firmly fixed boundary, is
set to each kind; nor, nnth such a possibility of alteration, would the
tribes of animals, according to their kinds, be so constantly able to repro-
duce the nature, motions, mode of life, and habits of their progenitors.
Again, since even of such a body as our senses cannot perceive,
274 LUCRETIUS
there is yet a certain extreme point, whatever it be, that point certainly
exists without parts, and consists of the least possible natural substance ;
nor has it ever existed of itself, apart from its body, nor will it hereafter
be able so to exist, since it is itself the first and last part of another body;
after which other and other like parts in succession fill up, in a con-
densed mass, the substance of the body, which parts, since they cannot
consist by themselves, must of necessity adhere to something else, from
which they can by no means be detached.
Primordial atoms are therefore of pure solidity, which, composed
of the smallest points, closely cohere ; not combined of a union of any
other things, but rather endowed with an eternal, simple, and indissol-
uble existence, from which nature allows nothing to be broken off, or
even diminished, reserving these primordial atoms as seeds for her pro-
ductions.
Moreover, unless there shall be some LEAST, some point where
division ends, the smallest bodies will individually consist of infinite
parts, as, in that case, any part of the half of any body will always have
its own half ; nor will any thing set a limit to this division. What, there-
fore, will be the difference in their nature between the greatest and
smallest of bodies ? It will not be possible that there should be any dif-
ference ; for though the whole entire sum of things, or the Universe, be
infinite, yet the smallest things which exist in it will equally consist of
infinite parts. To which position since just reasoning is opposed, and
denies that the mind can admit it, you must be prevailed upon to ack-
nowledge that there are bodies which exist having no parts, and consist
of the least possible substance ; and since they are so, since they are in-
divisible and undiminishable, you must also concede that they are solid
and eternal.
Further, unless Nature, the producer of things, had been accus-
tomed to force all things to be resolved into minutest parts, the same
Nature would now be unable to recruit any thing from those parts; be-
cause those generated bodies which are augmented and repaired by no
parts, cannot have and retain unimpaired those affections which gener-
ative matter ought to have, namely, various connexions, weights, con-
cussions, combinations, movements, by which things are severally
brought to pass.
TRANSLATION OF JOHN SELBY WATSON-
275
ON IMMORTALITY
AND NOW ATTEND. That thou mayest understand that living crea-
tures have minds, and subtle souls BORN and PERISHABLE, I will proceed
to arrange verses worthy of thy life and virtues, verses collected during
a long time, and prepared with sweet labor. And thou, my friend, take
care to include both of them under one name, whichsoever of the two I
may use; and, for example, when I proceed to speak of the soul, teach-
ing that it is mortal, suppose that I also speak of the mind ; inasmuch as
they are one by mutual combination, and their substance is united.
In the first place, since I have shown that the soul, being subtle,
consists of minute particles, and is composed of much smaller atoms
than the clear fluid of water, or mist, or smoke; (for it far surpasses
those bodies in susceptibility-of-motion, and is more readily impelled
when acted upon from a slight cause; inasmuch as both the mind and
soul are moved by the mere images of smoke and mist ; as when, lulled
in sleep, we see high altars exhale with vapor, and carry up smoke;
since doubtless these phantasms are produced in us;) now, therefore,
/ say, since, when vessels are broken to pieces, you see water flow about,
and any other liquid run away ; and since, also, mist and smoke disperse
into the air; you must conclude that the soul is likewise scattered
abroad, and is dissipated much sooner than mist and smoke, and more
easily resolved into its original elements, when it has once been with-
drawn from the body of a man, and has taken its departure. For how
can you believe that this soul can be held together by any combination of
air, when the body itself (which is, as it were, its vessel) cannot contain
it, if it be convulsed by any violence, or rendered thin and weak by
blood being taken from the veins? How can that air which is more
rare than our body confine it?
Besides, we observe that the mind is produced together with the
body, and grows up along with it, and waxes old at the same time with
it. For as children wander and totter about with a weak and tender
body, so the subtle sense of the mind follows and corresponds to the
iveakness of their frame. Then, when their age has grown up in robust
vigor, their understanding is also greater, and their strength of mind
276 LUCRETIUS
more enlarged. Afterwards, when the body is shaken by the prevailing
power of time, and, the strength being depressed, the limbs have sunk
into infirmity, the understanding then halts, the tongue and the mind
lose their sense, all parts fail and fade away at once. It is therefore
natural that the whole substance of the soul should be dissolved, as
smoke, into the sublime air of heaven ; since we see that it is produced
together with the body, and grows up together with it, and both, as I
have shown, overcome by age, decay in concert.
To this is added, that as we observe the body itself to-be-sub ject-to
violent diseases and severe pain, so we see the mind to be susceptible of
sharp cares, and grief, and fear. For which cause it is reasonable that
it should also be a partaker of death.
Moreover the mind, in diseases of the body, often wanders dis-
tracted ; for it loses its faculties, and utters senseless words ; and some-
times, by a heavy lethargy, is borne down into a deep and eternal sleep,
the eyes and the nodding-head sinking ; hence it neither hears the voice,
nor can distinguish the countenances, of those who stand around recall-
ing it to life, bedewing their faces and cheeks with tears. Wherefore
you must necessarily admit that the mind is also dissolved, since the
contagion of disease penetrates into it. For pain and disease are each
the fabricator of death ; a truth which we have been taught by the de-
struction of many millions in past times.
Further, when the violent power of wine has penetrated the heart
of men, and its heat, being distributed, has spread into the veins, a heav*
iness of the limbs follows, the legs of the tottering person are impeded,
the tongue grows torpid, the mind is, as it were, drowned ; noise, hic-
cups, and quarrels arise, and other things of this kind, whatever are con-
sequent on intoxication. Why do these effects happen, unless because
the vehement force of the wine has exerted-its-customary-power to dis-
turb the soul as it is diffused through the body itself? But whatsoever
things can be thus disturbed and obstructed in their operations, show,
that if a cause somewhat stronger shall spread within them, the conse-
quence will be that they must perish, deprived of all future existence.
Further, the animated powers of the body and mind are vigorous,
and enjoy life, only when joined with one another; for neither can the
nature or substance of the mind, without the body, alone, and of itself,
produce vital motions; nor again, can the body, deprived of the soul,
continue its state of existence, and use its faculties. Just, for example,
as the eye itself, torn from its roots, can discern no object apart from
the whole body, so the mind or soul seems to have no power in itself;
LUCRBTIUS 277
evidently because when mingled throughout the veins and viscera,
throughout the nerves and bones, they are held-in-close-confinement by
the whole body, and their primary-particles, not being free, cannot fly
asunder to great distances ; consequently, being thus confined, they
move with sensitive motions, with which, after death, when cast forth
beyond the body into the air of heaven, they cannot move ; for this very
reason, that they are not held-confined in a similar manner. For surely
the air forms body and soul, if the soul shall be able to keep itself to-
gether in the air, and to contain itself for exerting those motions, which
it before exercised amidst the nerves, and in the body itself. On which
account, / say again and again, you must necessarily admit that when
the whole enclosure of the body is dissolved, and the vital breath cast
forth, the sentient-existence of the mind and the soul is dissolved ; since
there is common cause and like fate to both.
Besides, when the body cannot bear the dissociation of the soul,
without putrifying with offensive odor, why do you doubt but that the
essence of the soul, rising from the depths and innermost part of the
body, has passed forth, and has been diffused abroad like smoke ? and
that for this reason the body, decaying with so great a dissolution, has
utterly fallen away, because the foundations have been removed from
their place, and the spirits pass out through the limbs, and through all
the windings of the passages and ducts that are in the body ? So that
you may understand from many considerations, that the nature or sub-
stance of the soul, being departed, has gone out through the members
of the body, and that it was dissevered within the body itself, before,
gliding outwards, it flowed forth into the air of heaven.
Moreover, whilst the soul dwells within the bounds of life, it yet
frequently, when it has received a shock from some cause, seems to pass
away, and presents the appearance that the mind is let loose from the
whole body ; and the countenance then seems to become inanimate as at
the last hour, and all the relaxed members to fail the languid frame.
Such is the case, when it is said that the mind has been damaged, or
the vital power has suffered syncope ; while all is trepidation, and all are
anxious to recover the last link of life. For then all the mind, and
power of the soul, are shaken; and these, it is ci'idcnl, sink with the body
itself; so that a cause of somewhat greater force may bring them to dis-
solution.
Why then do you doubt, but that, at the hour of death, the soul
driven forth at length, weak and helpless, out of the body, and being in
the open air, with its covering removed, can not only not endure
278 LUCRETIUS
througout all time, but cannot even maintain-its-existence for the
smallest space whatsoever?
Nor does any one, when dying, appear to feel his soul go forth
entire from his whole body, or come up first to his throat, and to his
jaws above //; but he finds that part of it which is placed in any certain
portion of tin: body, fail and decay in that part ; as he is conscious of
the other senses losing-their-power each in its own quarter; but if our
soul were immortal, it would not so much complain that it suffers disso-
lution when dying, but would rather rejoice to pass forth abroad, and to
leave its covering, as a snake delights to cast its skin, or an old stag its
too long antlers.
Again, why are the understanding and faculty of the mind never
produced in the head, or the feet, or the hands, but remain-fixed, in all
men alike, in their peculiar seats and definite quarters, if it be not that
certain spots are assigned to each part to be born in, and where each,
whatever it be, may preserve-its-existence when born ; and if it be not
that such is the case with respect to the whole of the various members,
so that there may no where arise an improper arrangement of the parts ?
So invariably, in the operations of nature, does one thing follow anoth-
er ; nor is fire wont to be produced from rivers, or cold to be generated
in fire.
I
Besides, if the nature of the soul is immortal, and can have-a-
sentient-existence, when separated from our body, we must consider it,
as I suppose, to be endowed with the five senses ; nor in any other way
can we represent to ourselves the infernal souls as wandering on the
banks of the Acheron. Accordingly painters, and the past generations
of writers, have introduced in their compositions souls thus endowed
with senses. But neither can the eyes, nor the nostrils, nor can the
tongue; nor can the ears perceive hearing, or even remain-in-being,
apart from the soul. How then can souls be possessed of the five senses,
when all the organs of those senses have perished?
And since we see that the vital sense spreads through the whole
body, and that the whole is animated, if, on a sudden, any violence shall
cut through the body in the middle, so as to sever the two parts asunder,
the substance of the soul, also, without doubt, being disunited and di-
vided together with the body, will be dispersed and scattered abroad.
But that which is divided, and separates into any parts, evidently shows
that it has not an ever-during nature.
People relate that chariots armed with scythes, warm with promis-
cuous slaughter, often cut off limbs with such suddenness, that the part
LUCRETIUS 279
which, being severed, has fallen from the body, is seen to quiver on the
ground, when, notwithstanding, the mind and spirit of the man, from
the quickness of the wound, cannot feel any pain. And because at the
same time, the mind, in the ardor of battle, is given up to action, it pur-
sues fighting and slaughter with the remainder of the body ; nor is one
man aware, frequently, in the midst of the horses, that the wheels and
amputating scythes have carried away his left hand, which is lost to-
gether with its defense ; nor is another conscious, while he climbs the
wall and presses forward, that his right hand has dropped off. A third
next attempts to rise after having lost his leg, while his dying foot,
close by him. moves its toes on the ground. And the head of a fourth,
severed from the warm and living trunk, keeps, while lying on the
ground, its look of life and its eyes open, until it has yielded up all
remains of the soul within it.
Moreover, if, when the tongue of a serpent vibrates against you,
and his tail and long body threaten you, you may feel inclined to cut
both tail and body into several parts with your sword, you will see all
the parts separately, cut through with the recent wound, writhe about,
and sprinkle the earth with btood ; and you will observe the fore part,
turning backward, seeking itself, that is, the hinder part of the body,
tvith its mouth, so that, pierced with the burning anguish of the wound,
it may seize it with its teeth.
Shall we then say that there are entire souls in all those several
parts? But from that position it will follow that one living creature
had several souls in its single body. And since this is absurd, we must
admit, therefore, that that has been divided which was one with the
body; wherefore both must be thought to be mortal; since both are
equally divided into several portions.
Besides, if the nature of the soul exists imperishable, and is in-
fused into men at their birth, why are we unable to remember the
period-of-existence previously by us, nor retain any traces of past
transactions? For if the power of the mind is so exceedingly changed,
that all remembrance of past things has departed from it, that change,
as I think, is not far removed from death itself. For which reason you
must of necessity acknowledge, that whatever soul previously existed
has perished, and that that which exists for the present has been pro-
duced for the present.
Again, if, after the body is completely formed, the vital power of
the soul is wont to be introduced into us at the very time when we are
born and when we cross the threshold of life, it would not be in accord-
280 LUCRETIUS
ance with this, that it should seem, as it now seems, to have grown up
in the blood itself together with the body, and with its several members ;
but it would rather be natural that it should live alone, as in a cage, by
itself and for itself; though in such a manner, that the whole body, by
its influence, should abound with sense and vitality. For which reason,
I say again and again, we must neither think that souls are without be-
ginning, nor that they are exempt from the law of death. For neither
must we deem that souls, if infused into us from without, could have
been so completely united with our bodies ; ( which complete union, on
the contrary, manifest experience proves to take place ; for the soul is
so combined with tfa body throughout the veins, viscera, nerves, and
bones, that even the very teeth have a share of feeling ; as their aching
proves, and the acute-pain from cold water, and the cranching of a hard
pebble suddenly among our food;) nor, when they are so completely
united, does it seem possible for them to come out entire, and to extri-
cate themselves unharmed from all the nerves, and bones, and joints.
But if still, perchance, you think that a soul, infused from without,
is wont to expand itself through our limbs, yet to admit this, is only to
admit that every man's soul, being spread out with the body, will so
much the more certainly perish with it. For that which is diffused
throughout the body, is dissolved with it, and therefore perishes. Being
distributed, then, through all the passages of the body, — as food, when
it is distributed through all the members and limbs, is dissolved, and
takes of itself another nature, — so the soul and the mind, although,
under this supposition, they go whole into the body at first, yet are dis-
solved, like digested food, in diffusing themselves through it, while the
particles are distributed, as if through tubes, into all the limbs ; the par-
ticles, I say, of which is formed this substance of the mind, which now
rules in our body, and which has been generated, like the new nature of
food, from that which lost its consistence when it was spread through-
out the limbs.
For which reasons, the nature or substance of the soul seems nei-
ther to have been without a natal day, nor to be exempt from death.
Again, whether do any atoms of the soul remain in a dead body, or
not ? For if any remain and exist in the body, it will not be possible for
the soul to be justly accounted immortal ; since when she took her de-
parture, she was diminished of some lost particles. But if, when re-
moved, she fled with all her parts so entire, that she left no atoms of her
substance in the body, whence do dead carcasses, when the viscera be-
come putrid, send forth worms ? And whence does such an abundance
LUCRETIUS 281
of living creatures, void of bones and blood, swarm over the swollen
limbs?
But if, perchance, you think that perfectly-formed souls may be
insinuated into those worms from without, and if you suppose that they
may pass each into its own body, and yet omit to consider for what cause
many thousands of souls should congregate in the place from which one
soul has withdrawn, this point, however, which you leave out of con-
sideration, is of such a nature, that it seems especially worthy to be
sought into and brought under examination. // is proper not only to
reflect, I say, whether souls hunt for particular atoms of worms, and
build for themselves carcasses in which they may dwell, or whether they
infuse themselves into bodies already made ; but also to consider that
there is no reason to be given why they should make bodies, or why they
should labor at all; for, while they are without a body, they fly about
undisturbed by diseases, and cold, and hunger ; since it is the body that
rather labors under these maladies, (as well as from death,) and the
soul suffers all evils from contact with it. But, nevertheless, let it be as
advantageous as you please for these souls to make a body which they
may enter, there seems, however, to be no means by which they may
make it. It is fair, therefore, to conclude that souls do not make for
themselves bodies and limbs. Nor yet is there a possibility, as it appears,
that they can be infused into bodies perfectly-formed ; for neither under
that supposition can they be exactly fitted together; nor will their
mutual -mot ions be carried on with sympathy.
Furthermore, why does violent rage attend upon the sullen breed
of lions, and craft upon that of foxes ; and why is flight communicated
to stags from their sires, and why does hereditary fear add speed to
their limbs ? And as to other qualities of this sort, why do they all gen-
erate, in the body and temperament, from the earliest period of life, if
it be not because a certain disposition of mind grows up together with
each body from its own seed and stock ? But if the soul were immortal,
and were accustomed, as the Pythagoreans think, to change bodies,
surely animals would gradually alter, and grow of mixed dispositions ;
the dog of Hyrcanian breed would often flee from the assault of the
horned stag; the hawk, flying through the air of heaven, would tremble
at the approach of the dove ; men would lose their understanding, and
the savage tribes of wild beasts become reasonable.
For that which some assert, namely, that an immortal soul is
altered by a change of body, is advanced upon false reasoning ; as that
which is altered, loses its consistence, and therefore perishes ; since the
V 3-18
282 LUCRETIUS
parts are transposed, and depart from their original arrangement;
wherefore the parts of the soul, under this hypothesis, must also be sub-
ject to dissolution throughout the limbs; so that finally they may all
perish together with the body.
But if they shall say that the souls of men always migrate into
human bodies, I shall nevertheless ask, why a soul, from being wise in
a -wise body, should possibly become foolish in the body of a fool; why
no child is found discreet, or informed with a soul of nuiture under-
standing, and why no foal of a mare is as skilful in his paces as the horse
of full vigour ? Why, I say, is this, if it be not because a certain temper
of mind grows up with each body from its own seed and stock ? These
philosophers, forsooth, will take refuge in the assertion, that the mind
becomes tender in a tender body ; but if this be the case, you must admit
that the soul is mortal, since, being so exceedingly changed in its new
body, it loses its former vitality and powers.
Or in what way will the vigour of a soul, strengthened in concert
with each particular body, be able to reach with it the desired flower of
mature age, unless it shall be joined to it in its first origin? Or with
what motive does the soul go forth from limbs that are grown old?
Does it fear to remain imprisoned in a decaying-carcass, lest it should
decay with it? Or is it afraid lest its tenement, shaken with a long
course of life, should fall and overwhelm it? But to that which is
immortal, there are no such dangers.
Moreover, to imagine that souls stand ready at the amorous inter-
courses, or parturitions, of beasts, to enter into the young, seems exceed-
ingly ridiculous. // appears too absurd to suppose that immortal
beings, in infinite numbers, should wait for mortal bodies, and contend
emulously among themselves which shall be first and foremost to enter ;
— unless perchance you suppose that agreements have been made among
the souls, that the first which shall have come flying to the body, shall
have first ingress, and that they may thus have no contest in strength
with one another.
Again, neither can a tree exist in the sky, nor clouds in the deep
sea ; nor can fish live in the fields ; nor blood be in wood, nor liquid in
stones. It is fixed and arranged where every thing may grow and sub-
sist ; thus the nature or substance of the mind can not spring up alone
without the body, or exist apart from the nerves and the blood.
Whereas if this could happen, the power of the mind might at times
rather arise in the head or the shoulders, or the bottom of the heels, and
might rather accustom itself to grow in any place, than to remain" in the
LUCRETIUS 283
same man and in the same receptacle. But since it seems fixed and
appointed also in our own body, where the soul and the mind may sub-
sist and grow up by themselves, it is so much the more to be denied that
they can endure and be produced out of the entire body. For which
reason, when the body has perished, you must necessarily admit that the
foul, which is diffused throughout the body, has perished with it.
Besides, to join the mortal to the immortal, and to suppose that
they can sympathize together, and perform mutual operations, is to
think absurdly ; for what can be conceived more at variance with reason,
or more inconsistent and irreconcilable in itself, than that that which is
mortal, joined to that which is imperishable and eternal, should submit
to endure violent storms and troubles in combination with itf
Further, whatsoever bodies remain eternal, must either, as being
of a solid consistence, repel blows, and suffer nothing to penetrate them,
that can disunite their compact parts within, (such as are primary-
particles of matter, the nature of which we have shown above ;) or they
must be able to endure throughout all time, because they are free from
blows or unsusceptible of them; (as a vacuum, which remains intangible,
and suffers nothing from a stroke;) or they must be indestructible for
this reason, that there is no sufficiency of space around about them
into which their constituent substances may, as it were, sep-
arate and be dissolved ; (as the entire universe is eternal, inasmuch as
there is neither any space without it into which its parts may disperse ;
nor are there any bodies which may fall upon it, and break it to pieces
by a violent concussion :) but, as I have shown, neither is the nature of
the soul of a solid substance, since with all compound bodies vacuum
is mixed ; nor is it like a vacuum itself; nor^again, are bodies wanting,
which, rising fortuitously from the infinite of things, may overturn this
frame of the mind with a violent tempest, or bring upon it some other
kind of disaster and danger ; nor, moreover, is vastness and profundity
of space wanting, into which the substance of the soul may be dis-
persed, or may otherwise perish and be overwhelmed by any other kind
of force. The gate of death, therefore, is not shut against the mind and
soul.
But if perchance the soul, in the opinion of any, is to be accounted
immortal the more on this account, that it is kept fortified by things
preservative of life ; or because those that do approach, being by some
means diverted, retreat before we can perceive what injury they inflict;
the notion of those who think thus is evidently far removed from just
reasoning-. For besides that it sickens from diseases of the body, there
284 LUCRETIUS
often happens something to trouble it concerning future events, and
keep it disquieted in fear, and harass it with cares ; while remorse for
faults, from past acts wickedly and foolishly committed, torments and
distresses it. Join to these afflictions the insanity peculiar to the mind,
and the oblivion of all things ; and add, besides, that it is often sunk into
the black waves of lethargy.
Death, therefore, is nothing, nor at all concerns us, since the nature
or substance of the soul is to be accounted mortal. And as, in past time,
we felt anxiety, when the Carthaginians gathered on all sides to fight
with our forefathers, and when all things under the lofty air of heaven,
shaken with the dismaying tumult of war, trembled with dread ; and men
were uncertain to the sway of which power every thing human, by land
and by sea, was to fall ; so, when we shall cease to be, when there shall
be a separation of the body and soul of which we are conjointly com-
posed, it is certain that to us, who shall not then exist, nothing will by
any possibility happen, or excite our feeling, not even if the earth shall
be mingled with the sea, and the sea with the heaven.
And even if the substance of the mind, and the powers of the soul,
after they have been separated from our body, still retain their faculties,
it is nothing to us, who subsist only as being conjointly constituted by
an arrangement and union of body and soul together. Nor, if time
should collect our material atoms after death, and restore them again
as they are now placed, and the light of life should be given back to us,
would it yet at all concern us that this were done, when the recollection
of our existence has once been interrupted. And it is now of no im-
porance to us, in regard to ourselves, what we were before ; nor does
any solicitude affect us in reference to those whom a new age shall pro-
duce from our matter, should it again be brought together as it is at
present. For when you consider the whole past space of indefinite time,
and reflect how various are the motions of matter, you may easily be-
lieve that our atoms have often been placed in the same order as that in
ivhich they now are. Yet we cannot revive that time in our memory ;
for a pause of life has been thrown between, and all the motions of our
atoms have wandered hither and thither, far away from sentient-
movements. For he, among the men now living, to whom misery and
pain are to happen after his death, must himself exist again, in his own
identity, at that very time on which the evil which he is to suff-er may
have power to fall ; but since death, which interrupts all consciousness,
and prevents all memory of the past, precludes the possibility of this ;
and since the circumstance of having previously existed, prohibits him
• OB J.tf
«»• cataaatties u-Aif/i we sufftr
might be aat
OJJM Hd 2UH3V
GRAECO-ROMAN SCIENCE
Lnooaz aril fieri) isJcf *gnobd ^dsdo-il .nwonJnu flOHT'J
ti^t^sindo isod Ji rlJiw hnuol ^Jn^rriaml eril 1o 9moa ?s ..0 .fl
><if^?/. )o l>fir.li»I odJ ni hnoo"-! .^Jsb JsrlJ ncriJ
T»r ATTCMPT* M» tolve At gr«at problems attacked by philo*/
that an. •• . • >, >^> f riMWtly of
unproven guettn or uncorrefcueo data, makn it unpcw»iblr and
unnecessary in this place to do more than to on .nt ideas of the
Among the early Greeks, Thales, wh'o lived in the last of the sev-
is reported to have noted the solstices and equinoxes,
<• lonfMt and si , s, and the times when the day and nig^ht
•re cqwt using the Babylonian
.ri'ttr which period eclipse* repeat themselves at
' tfcr im half of the
HOR unknown. Probably belongs later than the second century
B. C, as some of the fragments found with it bear characters later
than that date. Found in the Island of
GRABCO-KOUAN SCIENCE 245
who lived before, and with whom these calamities which we suffer
might be associated, from existing a second time, (with any recollection
of his other life,) as the same combination of atoms of which we now
consist, we may be assured that in death there is nothing to be dreaded
by us : that he who does not exist can not become miserable ; and that
it makes not the least difference to a man, when immortal death has
ended his mortal life, that he was ever born at all.
TRANSLATION OF JOHN SELBY WATSON.
GRAECO-ROMAN SCIENCE
THE ATTEMPTS to solve the great problems attacked by philosophy
led to investigations that in the course of centuries grew to take rank
as separate studies. Early Greek science, as may be seen from the
fragments given in the second volume, made many guesses but did not
prove them: later Greek and Graeco-Roman science gathered many
facts, but, outside of mathematics, had evolved no principles from them
before it was throttled by the prejudice of the early Christian Church.
This fact, that ancient science, except mathematics, consisted mostly of
either unproven guesses or uncorrelated data, makes it impossible and
unnecessary in this place to do more than to outline the ideas of the
times.
Among the early Greeks, Thales, who lived in the last of the sev-
enth century B. C, is reported to have noted the solstices and equinoxes,
i. e., the longest and shortest days, and the times when the day and night
are equal. He probably foretold an eclipse by using the Babylonian
cycle of 223 months, during which period eclipses repeat themselves at
regular intervals. Anaximander, in the first half of the sixth century,
is supposed to have invented a sun dial that showed the time of day by
286 GRAECO-ROMAN SCIENCE
the position of a shadow on a plate. He is also reported to have made
a map of the world as he knew it. Anaxagoras, born at the end or the
fifth century, discovered that either the sun or the moon may shut off
our view of the other ; and that the planets move while the other stars
do not. He thought the sun to be a fiery rock, say as large as the Pel-
oponnesus. Eudoxos, born about 406 B. C, marked some of the appa-
rent movements of the planets in the heavens. The Pythagoreans be-
lieved that the earth is round and revolves about the unseen fire which
they thought to be the center of the universe. Leukippos and Demokri-
tos developed their remarkable atomic theory, the most important hypo-
thesis advanced by the Greeks, but, though it was supported at the time
with striking arguments, the ancient world refused to accept it, and it
remained nothing more than a theory until the present century. Aris-
totle and his school made great collections in zoology and did con-
siderable work in classifying animals in accordance with the nature and
use of their organs. Fragments from these early thinkers have already
been included in the previous volume.
In the applied science of medicine, the first beginning was made by
the Greek Hippocrates, born of a family of priests of Aesculapius, the
god of health, in the first part of the fifth century B. C. The Greeks
had previously laid disease to the anger of the gods : readers of the
Iliad will remember that it was supposed to have been Apollo that sent
the deadly pestilence upon the Greeks before Troy. Hippocrates was
the first to break away from the idea that disease is a divine punishment.
He maintained that diseases spring out of natural causes, that they can
be studied, and that the body can be assisted in throwing them off.
Here is room for a science, and we have extant many works of Hippo-
crates in which he traces the course that diseases take. Some of his
important aphorisms are the following, translated by C. J. Sprengell :
Sec. I. i. Life is short, art is long, occasion sudden, experiment
dangerous, judgment difficult. Neither is it sufficient that the physi-
cian do his office, unless the patient and his attendants do their duty and
external conditions are well ordered.
6. In extreme diseases extreme and searching remedies are best.
13. Old men easily endure fasting, middle-aged men not so well,
young men still less easily, and children worst of all, especially those
who are of a more lively spirit.
14. Those bodies that grow have much natural heat, therefore
they require good store of food or else the body consumes, but old men
have little heat in them, therefore they require but little food, for "much
GRAECO-ROMAN SCIENCE :>7
nourishment extinguishes that heat. And this is the reason that old
men do not have very acute fevers, because their bodies are cold.
20. Those things that are or have been justly determined by na-
ture ought not to be moved or altered, either by purging or other irritat-
ing medicine, but should be let alone.
Sec. II. 3. Sleeping or walking, if either be immoderate, is evil.
4. Neither satiety nor hunger nor any other thing which exceeds
the natural bounds can be good or healthful.
24. The fourth day is the index of the seventh, the eighth of the
beginning of the week following. But the eleventh day is to be con-
sidered, for it is the fourth day of another seventh. And again the
seventeenth day is to be considered, being the fourth from the fourteenth
and the seventh from the eleventh.
51. It is dangerous much and suddenly either to empty, heat, fill,
or cool, or by any other means to stir the body, for whatever is beyond
moderation is an enemy to nature ; but that is safe which is done little
by little, and especially when a change is to be made from one thing to
another.
Sec. III. i. Changes of seasons are most effectual causes of dis-
eases, and so are alterations of cold and heat within the seasons, and
other things proportionately in the same manner.
Sec IV. 37. Cold sweats in acute fevers signify death, but in
more mild diseases they mean the continuance of the fever.
38. In what part of the body the sweat is there is the disease.
39. And in what part of the body there is unusual heat or cold
there the disease is seated.
Sec. VII. 65. The same meat administered to a person sick of
a fever as to one in health will strengthen the healthy one, but will in-
crease the malady of the sick one.
Sec. VIII. 6. Where medicines will not cure incision must be
made; if incisions fail, we must resort to cauterizing; but if that will
not do we may judge the malady incurable.
18. The finishing stroke of death is when the vital heat ascends
above the diaphragm and all the moisture is dried up. But when the
lungs and heart have lost their moisture, the heat being all collected
together in the most mortal places, the vital fire by which the whole
structure was built up and held together is suddenly exhaled. Then the
soul leaving this earthly building makes its exit partly through the flesh
and partly through the openings in the head, by which we live ; and thus
288 GRAECO-ROMAN SCIENCB
it surrenders up this cold earthly statue, together with the heat, blood,
tissues, and flesh.
Among the latter Greek scientists, Aristarchus made a shrewd
guess that the earth goes around the sun, but his theory remained only
an unaccepted guess.
Euclid, born 300 B. C, one of the world's great mathematicians,
analyzed our ideas of space and developed a geometry that differs but
little from that used in high schools to-day. For this reason it need
not be illustrated here. Thus the Greeks put this science on a firm basis.
Archimedes, who was born in Sicily about 287 B. C., proved, among
many things, that the contents of a sphere is two-thirds of the circum-
scribed cylinder. He discovered the principle of the lever, that weights
which are inversely proportional to their distances from a fulcrum will
balance, and invented a system of compound pulleys. He found, too,
that a body in water displaces its own bulk of the fluid, and applied the
principle to prove that there was not enough gold and too much silver
in Hiero's crown. He also invented a screw for the pumping up of
water, and the story will not down that he used concave mirrors to set
fire to the Roman ships during the siege of Syracuse. His results were
not only tangible but proven and, few as they may seem in the bare
statement of them, make him one of the world's greatest thinkers. The
discovery of even one natural law is enough to give a man the right to
eternal fame.
The following are some of his theorems :
THE SPHERE AND THE CYLINDER
Archimedes to Dositheus, greeting:
Formerly I sent to you the studies which I had finished up to that
time together with the demonstrations, which were to show that a seg-
ment bounded by a straight line and a conic section is four-thirds of the
triangle on the same base as the segment and of the same height. Since
that time certain propositions as yet undemonstrated have come to my
mind, and I have undertaken to work them out. These are: I. The
surface of any sphere is four times the surface of its greatest circle;
2. The surface of any segment of a sphere is equal to the surface of
that circle the radius of which equals the straight line drawn from the
vertex of the segment to the circumference of the circle which serves
as the base of the segment ; 3. That a cylinder with a base equal to the
great circle of a given sphere, and a height equal to the diameter of the
GRAECO ROMAN SCIENCE --.«
sphere contains half the volume of that sphere and its surface is equal
to half the surface of that sphere.
These propositions, of course, were always true of these figures,
but they were hidden to the men who studied geometry before my time.
Therefore, since I have discovered that these things hold true of these
figures I do not fear to place them alongside my own previous results
and the most thoroughly established theorems of Eudoxus, such as:
any pyramid is equal to one-third of the prism of the same base and
height, and any cone is equal to one-third of the cylinder of the same
base and height.
ON FLOATING BODIES
BOOK I.
First Postulate. Supposed that a fluid is of such a character that
when its component parts are undisturbed and in immediate contact
the part which is subject to the less pressure is moved by the part which
is subject to the greater pressure ; and that each part is forced in a per-
pendicular direction by the part above, if the fluid is compressed.
Proposition I. If a surface is always cut by a plane passing
through a given point, and if the section thus formed is always a circle
whose center is the given point, the surface is that of a sphere.
Proposition 2. The surface of any still fluid is always the surface
of a sphere whose center is the center of the earth.
Proposition 3. Those solids which are of the same weight as a
fluid in proportion to their size, when sunk in that fluid will be sub-
merged in such a way that they neither extend above that fluid nor sink
below it.
Proposition 4. A solid which is lighter than a given fluid will not
sink below the surface when placed in that fluid, but part of it will ex-
tend above the surface.
Proposition 5. A solid lighter than a given fluid will, when placed
in that fluid, be so far submerged that the weight of the solid will be
equal to the weight of the fluid displaced.
Proposition 6. If a solid lighter than a given fluid be forced into
that fluid the solid will be driven upwards again by a force which is
equal to the difference between the weight of the fluid and the weight of
the amount of fluid displaced.
BOOK If.
Proposition I. If a solid lighter than a given fluid rest in that
fluid the weight of the solid to the weight of an equal volume of the
290 GRAECO-ROMAN SCIENCE
fluid will be as the part of the solid which is submerged is to the whole
solid.
Erastosthenes, born about 276 B. C., was a geographer. He acted
on the theory that the earth is round, and realizing that at the equator
the day and night are equal in length, first mapped out a parallel of
latitude by pointing off the places whose longest day was fourteen and
a half hours. Drawing a line perpendicular to this parallel, he mapped
out a meridian of longitude, running through Alexandria and Syene.
He found that at the time of the summer solstice the sun was exactly
overhead at Syene, but a little over seven degrees toward the south of
the heavens at the same time at Alexandria. Hence he argued that the
distance from Alexandria to Syene must be a little more than 7/360, or
about one-fiftieteh of the circumference of the globe. He found this dis-
tance to be somewhere near 5,000 stadia and thus made the circumfer-
ence of the earth about 250,000 stadia. The stadium was equivalent to
about 600 English feet, and his total estimate to about 28,700 miles,
which is very close for the first rough solution.
Hipparchos, born about 160 B. C, was one of the greatest of the
ancient astronomers. He catalogued a thousand of the stars, and cal-
culated the time of the eclipses of the sun and moon. He also discov-
ered that the sun crosses the equator each year a little further to the
west. This is called the precession of the equinoxes.
Ptolemy (70 A. D.-I5O A. D.) was also an astronomer. He mapped
out some of the apparent motions of the planets, noted some of the in-
equalities in the motions of the moon, and advanced the theory that the
apparent motions of the sun, moon, and planets could be accounted for
by supposing them, while going round the earth, to have a small circu-
lar motion also, the result of the two motions being that they would cut
the same sort of a figure as a given point on the edge of a spinning top
would mark out if the top should itself spin round a center which repre-
sents the earth. The theory came so near accounting for the apparent
motions of the heavenly bodies that it was very difficult to overthrow.
The notion that the earth was the center of the universe was adopted
by the Church and the whole question foolishly mixed up with religion,
so that a great deal of persecution grew out of it, but this was the fault
not of Ptolemy, but of dogmatic theology.
After Hippocrates, the next to make any decided advance in the
study of the human body were Erasistratus and Herophilus. The work
of Hippocrates had been mostly in tracing the course of the disease.
They put more emphasis on the study of the body. Their work laid the
GRAECO-ROMAN SCIENCE 291
first foundation of the science of anatomy. They made many observa-
tions upon the body's structure, traced the nerves, described the brain,
examintd the muscles and pulse, but failed to correlate the details they
noted into any dynamic physiological theory.
The greatest of the Graeco-Romans in medicine was Galen. He
was born in Pergamus about 131 A. D. He first visited Rome in 164
A. D. Marcus Aurelius made him the medical guardian of Commodus.
Besides being a physician, he was a philosopher and logician. He ex-
tended the study of anatomy, made a careful study of the bones, dis-
tinguished the motor and sensory nerves, showed that the veins contain
blood, classified diseases, and in brief brought medicine to a height from
which it greatly declined during the dark ages, except perhaps among
the Arabians, until the time of Versalius. The difficulty in quoting from
his work is the one that is met in exemplifying the beginnings of any
study that has not advanced far enough to understand and explain the
workings of nature in its field. A descriptive enumeration of details is
the inevitable concomitant of investigation into a new subject but a
science can hardly be said to have been established before some genius
has discovered some of its principles.
Characteristic fragments of his work are the following : —
There are in all three branches of the study of medicine, in this
order. The first is the study of the result by analysis ; the second is the
combining of the facts found by analysis ; the third is the determining of
the definition, which branch we are now to consider in this work. This
branch of the science may be called not only the determining of the defi-
nition, but just as well the explication, as some would term it, or the
resolution, as some desire, or the explanation, or according to still
others, the exposition. Now some of the Herophilii, such as Heraclides
of Erythrea, have attempted to teach this doctrine. These Herophilii
and certain followers of Erasistratus and of Athenaeus, the Attalian,
studied also the doctrine of combination. But no one before us has
described the method which begins with the study of the results, from
which every art must take its beginning methodically; this we have
considered in a former work.
Chap. i. Medicine is the science of the healthy, the unhealthy, and
the indeterminate, or neutral. It is a matter of indifference whether
one calls the second the ill, or the unhealthy. It is better to give the
name of the science in common than in technical terms. But the healthy,
the unhealthy, the neutral, are each of them subject to a three-fold
292 GRAECO-ROMAN SCIENCE
division : first, as to the body ; second, as to the cause ; and third, as to
the sign. The body which contains the health, the cause which affects
or preserves the health, and the sign or symptom which marks the con-
dition of the health, all these are called by the Greeks hygienia. In the
same way they speak of the bodies susceptible to disease, of causes
effecting and aiding diseases, and of signs indicating diseases, as path-
ological. Likewise they speak of neutral bodies, causes, and signs.
And according to the first division the science of medicine is called the
science of the causes of health, according to the second, of the causes of
ill-health, and according to the third of the causes of neutral conditions.
Chap. 2. The healthy body is simply that which is rightly com-
posed from its very birth in the simple and elementary parts of its struc-
ture, and is symmetrical in the organs composed of these elements.
From another point of view, that is also a healthy body which is in
sound condition at the time of speaking.
It will be seen from the above that the Greeks noted many facts in
astronomy, but were unable to settle upon the correct conception of the
universe to account for them ; that they developed ordinary geometry
almost as far as possible without the aid of the analytic method of
Descartes or the calculus of Leibnitz or Newton ; that Archimedes made
a good beginning in applying mathematics to physics ; that in medicine
they realized that the causes of diseases are natural and not divine, and
brought together many truths concerning the human body without
having a correct idea of its workings; and that they developed the
atomic theory in many important details, but could not force its accept-
ance by proof. This means that they knew nothing more than isolated
facts in astronomy ; physics, including electricity, light, sound, heat, and
mechanics (except the theorems of Archimedes), chemistry, geology,
botany, biology, physiology, or psychology.
In the preceding volume we showed the scientific ideas of the early
Greek thinkers; in this volume we illustrate the ideas of the time in
medicine ; and the work of Archimedes ; give Lucretius's exposition of
the atomic theory; and exemplify the scientific conceptions of the period
in the encyclopedia of Pliny the Elder.
IN
PLINY THE ELDER
PLINY THE ELDER was born in Cisalpine Gaul, 23 A. D. When still
a youth he moved to Rome, and studied under the grammarian Apion.
From his twenty-third to his twenty-ninth year he served in the army,
mostly in Germany. Nero made him procurator in Nearer Spain, and
later he enjoyed the intimate friendship of Vespasian on account of his
history of the "Wars in Germany."
He was of the most energetic habits, beginning study in winter at
midnight, attending Vespasian before daylight, looking to the duties of
his office in the morning, after a light luncheon making notes from some
book a slave read to him, then, after a cold bath and a nap, taking up his
work again until the evening meal. He always rode in a litter because
while riding in this way he could still be reading. He wrote many
books but the only ones that have come down to us are those of his
"Natural History," really an encyclopedia of the knowledge of the time.
As it is a compendium we can not judge from it of his ability as an
original thinker ; we know, however, that he lost his life in 79, A. D.,
while attempting to examine more closely the eruption of Vesuvius.
We give below parts of his encyclopedia showing important con-
ceptions of Graeco-Roman science.
294
SCIENTIFIC IDEAS OF THE TIMES
AN ACCOUNT OF THE WORLD AND THE ELEMENTS
CHAP. I. WHETHER THE WORLD BE FINITE, AND WHETHER THERE BE
MORE THAN ONE WORLD
THE WORLD, and whatever that be which we otherwise call the
heavens, by the vault of which all things are enclosed, we must con-
ceive to be a deity, to be eternal, without bounds, neither created, nor
subject, at any time, to destruction. To inquire what is beyond it is no
concern of man, nor can the human mind form any conjecture respect-
ing it. It is sacred, eternal, and without bounds, all in all ; indeed in-
cluding everything in itself ; finite, yet like what is infinite ; the most
certain of all things, yet like what is uncertain, externally and internally
embracing all things in itself ; it is the work of nature, and itself con-
stitutes nature.
It is madness to harass the mind, as some have done, with attempts
to measure the world, and to publish these attempts; or, like others,
to argue from what they have made out, that there are innumerable
other worlds, and that we must believe there to be so many other natures,
or that, if only one nature produce the whole, there will be so many suns
and so many moons, and that each of them will have immense trains of
other heavenly bodies. As if the same question would not recur at
every step of our inquiry, anxious as we must be to arrive at some
termination; or, as if this infinity, which we ascribe to nature, the
former of all things, cannot be more easily comprehended by one single
formation, especially when that is so extensive. It is madness, perfect
madness, to go out of this world and to search for what is beyond it,
as if one who is ignorant of his own dimensions could ascertain the
measure of any thing else, or as if the human mind could see what the
world itself cannot contain.
CHAP. 2. OF THE FORM OF THE WORLD
That it has the form of a perfect globe we learn from the name
which has been uniformly given to it, as well as from numerous natural
PLINY THE BLDBR :'j.,
arguments. For not only does a figure of this kind return everywhere
into itself and sustain itself, also including itself, requiring no adjust-
ments, not sensible of either end or beginning in any of its parts, and is
best fitted for that motion, with which, as will appear hereafter, it is
continually turning round ; but still more, because we perceive it by the
evidence of the sight, to be, in every part, convex and central, which
could not be the case were it of any other figure.
CHAP. 3. OF ITS NATURE J WHENCE THE NAME IS DERIVED
The rising and the setting of the sun clearly prove, that this globe
is carried round in the space of twenty-four hours, in an eternal and
never-ceasing circuit, and with incredible swiftness. I am not able to
say, whether the sound caused by the whirling about of so great a mass
be excessive, and, therefore, far beyond what our ears can perceive, nor,
indeed, whether the resounding of so many stars, all carried along at
the same time and revolving in their orbits, may not produce a kind of
delightful harmony of incredible sweetness. To us, who are in the in-
terior, the world appears to glide silently along, both by day and by
night.
Various circumstances in nature prove to us, that there are im-
pressed on the heavens innumerable figures of animals and of all kinds
of objects, and that its surface is not perfectly polished like the eggs of
birds, as some celebrated authors assert. For we find that the seeds of
all bodies fall down from it, principally into the ocean, and, being mixed
together, that a variety of monstrous forms are in this way frequently
produced. And, indeed, this is evident to the eye ; for, in one part, we
have the figure of a wain, in another of a bear, of a bull, and of a letter ;
while, in the middle of them, over our heads, there is a white circle.
With respect to the name of it, I am influenced by the unanimous
opinions of all nations. For what the Greeks, from its being orna-
mented, have termed kosmos, we, from its perfect and complete ele-
gance, have termed mundtis. The name calum, no doubt, refers to its
being engraven, as it were, with the stars, as Varro suggests. In con-
firmation of this idea we may adduce the Zodiac, in which are twelve
figures of animals; through them it is that the sun has continued its
course for so many ages.
CHAP. 4. OF THE ELEMENTS AND THE PLANETS
I do not find that any one has doubted that there are four elements.
The highest of these is supposed to be fire, and hence proceed the eyes
296 PLINY THE ELDER
of so many glittering stars. The next is that spirit, which both the
Greeks and ourselves call by the same name, air. It is by the force of
this vital principle, pervading all things and mingling with all, that the
earth, together with the fourth element, water, is balanced in the mid-
dle of space. These are mutually bound together, the lighter being re-
strained by the heavier, so that they cannot fly off ; while, on the con-
trary, from the lighter tending upwards, the heavier are so suspended,
that they cannot fall down. Thus, by an equal tendency in an opposite
direction, each of them remains in its appropriate place, bound together
by the never-ceasing revolution of the world, which always turning on
itself, the earth falls to the lowest part and is in the middle of the
whole, while it remains suspended in the center, and, as it were, balanc-
ing this center in which it is suspended. So that it alone remains im-
movable, whilst all things revolve round it, being connected with every
other part, whilst they all rest upon it.
Between this body and the heavens there are suspended, in this
aerial spirit, seven stars, separated by determinate spaces, which, on
accounts of their motion, we call wandering, although, in reality, none
are less so. The sun is carried along in the midst of these, a body of
great size and power, the ruler, not only of the seasons and of the dif-
ferent climates, but also of the stars themselves and of the heavens.
When we consider his operations, we must regard him as the life, or
rather the mind of the universe, the chief regulator and the god of
nature ; he also lends his light to the other stars. He is most illustrious
and excellent, beholding all things and hearing all things, which, I per-
ceive, is ascribed to him exclusively by the prince of poets, Homer.
CHAP. 5. OF GOD
I consider it, therefore, an indication of human weakness to inquire
into the figure and form of God. For whatever God be, if there be any
other god, and wherever he exists, he is all sense, all sight, all hearing,
all life, all mind, and all within himself. To believe that there are a
number of gods, derived from the virtues, and vices of man, as Chastity,
Concord, Understanding, Hope, Honor, Clemency, and Fidelity; or,
according to the opinion of Democritus, that there are only two, Pun-
ishment and Reward, indicates still greater folly. Human nature, weak
and frail as it is, mindful of its own infirmity, has made these divisions,
so that every one might have recourse to that which he supposed him-
self to stand more particularly in need of. Hence we find different
names employed by different nations; the inferior deities are arranged
PUNY THE ELDER 207
in classes, and diseases and plagues arc deified, in consequence of our
anxious wish to propitiate them. It was from this cause that a temple
was dedicated to Fever, at the public expense, on the Palatine Hill,
and to Orbona, near the temple of the Lares, and that an altar was
elected to Good Fortune on the Esquiline. Hence, we may understand
how it comes to pass that there is a greater population of the Celestials
than of human beings, since each individual makes a separate god for
himself, adopting his own Juno and his own Genius. And there are
nations who make gods of certain animals, and even certain obscene
things, which are not to be spoken of, swearing by stinking meats and
such like. To suppose that marriages are contracted between the gods,
and that, during so long a period, there should have been no issue from
them, that some of them should be old and always grey-headed and
others young and like children, some of a dark complexion, winged,
lame, produced from eggs, living and dying on alternate days, is suffi-
ciently puerile and foolish. But it is the height of impudence to imagine,
that adultery takes place between them, that they have contests and
quarrels, and that there are gods of theft and of various crimes. To
assist man is to be a god ; this is the path to eternal glory. This is the
path which the Roman nobles formerly pursued, and this is the path
which is now pursued by the greatest ruler of our age, Vespasian Au-
gustus, he who has come to the relief of an exhausted empire, as well
as by his sons. This was the ancient mode of remunerating those who
deserved it, to regard them as gods. For the names of all the gods, as
well as of the stars that I have mentioned above, have been derived
from their services to mankind. And with respect to Jupiter and Mer-
cury, and the rest of the celestial nomenclature, who does not admit
that they have reference to certain natural phaenomena?
But it is ridiculous to suppose, that the great head of all things,
whatever it be, pays any regard to human affairs. Can we believe, or
rather can there be any doubt, that it is not polluted by such a dis-
agreeable and complicated office? It is not easy to determine which
opinion would be most for the advantage of mankind, since we observe
some who have no respect for the gods, and others who carry it to a
Scandalous excess. They are slaves to foreign ceremonies ; they earn'
on their fingers the gods and the monsters whom they worship; they
condemn and they lay great stress on certain kinds of food ; they impose
on themselves dreadful ordinances, not even sleeping quietly. They do
not marry or adopt children, or indeed do anything else, without the
sanction of their sacred rites. There are others, on the contrary, who
V 3-19
298 PLINY THE ELDER
will cheat in the very capitol, and will forswear themselves even by
Jupiter Tonans, and while these thrive in their crimes, the others tor-
ment themselves with their superstitions to no purpose.
Among these discordant opinions mankind have discovered for
themselves a kind of intermediate deity, by which our scepticism con-
cerning God is still increased. For all over the world, in all places, and
at all times, Fortune is the only god whom every one invokes ; she alone
is spoken of, she alone is accused and is supposed to be guilty ; she alone
is in our thoughts, is praised and blamed, and is loaded with reproaches ;
wavering as she is, conceived by the generality of mankind to be blind,
wandering, inconstant, uncertain, variable, and often favoring the un-
worthy. To her are referred all our losses and all our gains, and in
casting up the accounts of mortals she alone balances the two pages of
our sheet. We are so much in the power of chance, that change itself
is considered as a god, and the existence of God becomes doubtful.
But there are others who reject this principle and assign events to
the influence of the stars, and to the laws of our nativity ; they suppose
that God, once for all, issues his decrees and never afterwards interferes.
This opinion begins to gain ground, and both the learned and the un-
learned vulgar are falling into it. Hence we have the admonitions of
thunder, the warnings of oracles, the predictions of sooth-sayers, and
things too trifling to be mentioned, as sneezing and stumbling with the
feet reckoned among omens. The late Emperor Augustus relates, that
he put the left shoe on the wrong foot, the day when he was near being
assaulted by his soldiers. And such things as these so embarrass im-
provident mortals, that among all of them this alone is certain, that
there is nothing certain, and that there is nothing more proud or more
wretched than man. For other animals have no care but to provide for
their subsistence, for which the spontaneous kindness of nature is all-
sufficient ; and this one circumstance renders their lot more especially
preferable, that they never think about glory, or money, or ambition,
and, above all, that they never reflect on death.
The belief, however, that on these points the gods superintend
human affairs is useful to us, as well as that the punishment of crimes,
although sometimes tardy, from the deity being occupied with such a
mass of business, is never entirely remitted, and that the human race was
not made the next in rank to himself, in order that they might be
degraded like brutes. And, indeed, this constitutes the great comfort
in this imperfect state of man, that even the deity cannot do everything.
For he cannot procure death for himself, even if he wished it, which, so
PLINY THE ELDER HI
numerous arc the evils of life, has been granted to man as our chief
good. Nor can he make mortals immortal, or recall to life those who
£rc dead ; nor can he effect, that he who has once lived shall not have
lived, or that he who has enjoyed honors shall not have enjoyed them ;
nor has he any influence over past events but to cause them to be for-
gotten. And, if we illustrate the nature of our connexion with God by
a less serious argument, he cannot make twice ten not to be twenty, and
many other things of this kind. By these considerations the power of
nature is clearly proved, and is shown to be what we call God. It is not
foreign to the subject to have digressed into these matters, familiar as
they are to every one, from the continual discussions that take place
respecting God.
CHAP. 6. OF THE NATURE OF THE STARS J OF THE MOTION OF THE
PLANETS
Let us return from this digression to the other parts of nature.
The stars which are described as fixed in the heavens, are not, as the
vulgar suppose, attached each of them to different individuals, the
brighter to the rich, those that are less so to the poor, and the dim to
the aged, shining according to the lot of the individual, and separately
assigned to mortals ; for they have neither come into existence, nor do
they perish in connexion with particular persons, nor does a falling star
indicate that any one is dead. We are not so closely connected with the
heavens as that the shining of the stars is affected by our death. When
they are supposed to shoot or fall, they throw out, by the force of their
fire, as if from an excess of nutriment, the superabundance of the
humor which they have absorbed, as we observe to take place from the
oil in our lamps, when they are burning. The nature of the celestial
bodies is eternal, being interwoven, as it were, with the world, and, by
this union, rendering it solid ; but they exert their most powerful influ-
ence on the earth. This, notwithstanding its subtilty, may be known
by the clearness and the magnitude of the effect, as we shall point out
in the proper place. The account of the circles of the heavens will be
better understood when we come to speak of the earth, since they have
all a reference to it; except what has been discovered respecting the
Zodiac, which I shall now detail.
Anaximander, the Milesian, in the 58th olympiad, is said to have
been the first who understood its obliquity, and thus opened the road to
a correct knowledge of the subject. Afterwards Geostratus made the
signs in it, first marking those of Aries and Sagittarius; Atlas had
300 PLINY THE ELDER
formed the sphere long before this time. But now, leaving the further
consideration of this subject, we must treat of the bodies that are sit-
uated between the earth and the heavens.
It is certain that the star called Saturn is the highest, and therefore
appears the smallest, that he passes through the largest circuit, and that
he is at least thirty years in completing it. The course of all the planets,
and among others of the Sun, and the Moon, is in the contrary direction
to that of the heavens, that is towards the left, while the heavens are
rapidly carried about to the right. And although, by the stars con-
stantly revolving with immense velocity, they are raised up, and hur-
ried on to the part where they set, yet they are all forced, by a motion
of their own, in an opposite direction ; and this is so ordered, lest the air,
being always moved in the same direction, by the constant whirling of
the heavens, should accumulate into one mass, whereas now it is divided
and separated and beaten into small pieces, by the opposite motion of the
different stars. Saturn is a star of a cold and rigid nature, while the
orbit of Jupiter is much lower, and is carried round in twelve years.
The next star, Mars, which some persons call Hercules, is of a fiery and
burning nature, and from its nearness to the sun is carried round in
little less than two years. In consequence of the excessive heat of this
star and the rigidity of Saturn, Jupiter, which is interposed between the
two, is tempered by both of them, and is thus rendered salutary. The
path of the Sun consists of 360 degrees ; but, in order that the shadow
may return to the same point of the dial, we are obliged to add, in each
year, five days and the fourth part of a day. On this account an inter-
calary day is given to every fifth year, that the period of the seasons
may agree with that of the Sun.
Below the Sun revolves the great star called Venus, wandering
with an alternate motion, and, even in its surnames, rivalling the Sun
and the Moon. For when it precedes the day and rises in the morning,
it receives the name of Lucifer, as if it were another sun, hastening on
the day. On the contrary, when it shines in the west, it is named Ves-
per, as prolonging the light, and performing the office of the moon.
Pythagoras, the Samian, was the first who discovered its nature, about
the 62nd olympiad, in the 222nd year of the City. It excels all the
other stars in size, and its brilliancy is so considerable, that it is the only
star which produces a shadow by its rays. There has, consequently,
been great interest made for its name; some have called it the star of
Juno, others of Iris, and others of the Mother of the Gods. By its influ-
ence everything in the earth is generated. For, as it rises in either direc-
PLINY THE ELDER 3Jl
lion, it sprinkles everything with its genial dew, and not only matures
the productions of the earth, but stimulates all living things. It com-
pletes the circuit of the zodiac in 348 days, never receding from the sun
more than 46 degrees, according to Timaeus.
Similarly circumstanced, but by no means equal in size and in
power, next to it, is the star Mercury, by some called Apollo ; it is car-
ried in a lower orbit, and moves in a course which is quicker by nine
days, shining sometimes before the rising of the sun, and at other times
after its setting, but never going farther from it than 23 degrees, as we
learn from Timaeus and Sosigenes. The nature of these two stars is
peculiar, and is not the same with those mentioned above, for those are
seen to recede from the sun through one-third or one-fourth part of
the heavens, and are often seen opposite to it. They have also other
larger circuits, in which they make their complete revolutions, as will
be described in the account of the great year.
But the Moon, which is the last of the stars, and the one the most
connected with the earth, the remedy provided by nature for darkness,
excels all the others in its admirable qualities. By the variety of appear-
ances which it assumes, it puzzles the observers, mortified that they
should be the most ignorant concerning that star which is the nearest to
them. She is always either waxing or waning ; sometimes her disc is
curved into horns, sometimes it is divided into two equal portions, and
at other times it is swelled out into a full orb ; sometimes she appears
spotted and suddenly becomes very bright ; she appears very large with
her full orb and suddenly becomes invisible ; now continuing during all
the night, now rising late, and now aiding the light of the sun during a
part of the day ; becoming eclipsed and yet being visible while she is
eclipsed ; concealing herself at the end of the month and yet not sup-
posed to be eclipsed. Sometimes she is low down, sometimes she is high
up, and that not according to one uniform course, being at one time
raised up to the heavens, at other times almost contiguous to the moun-
tains; now elevated in the north, now depressed in the south; all which
circumstances having been noticed by Endymion, a report was spread
about, that he was in love with the moon. We are not indeed sufficiently
grateful to those, who, with so much labor and care, have enlightened
us with this light ; while, so diseased is the human mind, that we take
pleasure in writing the annals of blood and slaughter, in order that the
crimes of men may be made known to those who are ignorant of the
constitution of the world itself.
Being nearest to the axis, and there having the smallest orbit,
302 PLINY THE ELDER
the Moon passes it twenty-seven days and the one-third part of a day,
through the same space for which Saturn, the highest of the planets, as
was stated above, requires thirty years. After remaining for two days
in conjunction with the sun, on the thirtieth day she again very slowly
emerges to pursue her accustomed course. I know not whether she
ought not to be considered as our instructress in everything that can
be known respecting the heavens ; as that the year is divided into the
twelve divisions of the months, since she follows the sun for the same
number of times, until he returns to his starting point; and that her
brightness, as well as that of the other stars, is regulated by that of
the sun, if indeed they all of them shine by light borrowed from him,
such as we see floating about, when it is reflected from the surface of
water. On this account it is that she dissolves so much moisture, by a
gentle and less perfect force, and adds to the quantity of that which the
rays of the sun consume. On this account she appears with an unequal
light, because being full only when she is in opposition, on all the
remaining days she shows only so much of herself to the earth as she
receives light from the sun. She is not seen in conjunction, because,
at that time, she sends back the whole stream of light to the source
whence she has derived it. That the stars generally are nourished by
the terrestrial moisture is evident, because, when the moon is only half
visible she is sometimes seen spotted, her power of absorbing moisture
not having been powerful enough ; for the spots are nothing else than
the dregs of the earth drawn up along with the moisture. (10.) But
her eclipses and those of the sun, the most wonderful of all the phaen-
omena of nature, and which are like prodigies, serve to indicate the
magnitude of these bodies and the shadow which they cast.
CHAP. 7. OF THE ECLIPSES OF THE SUN AND THE MOON
For it is evident that the sun is hid by the intervention of the moon,
and the moon by the opposition of the earth, and that these changes are
mutual, the moon, by her interposition, taking the rays of the sun from
the earth, and the earth from the moon. As she advances darkness is
suddenly produced, and again the sun is obscured by her shade; for
night is nothing more than the shade of the earth. The figure of this
shade is like that of a pyramid or an inverted top ; and the moon enters
it only near its point, and it does not exceed the height of the moon, for
there is no other star which is obscured in the same manner, while a
figure of this kind always terminates in a point. The flight of birds,
when very lofty, shows that shadows do not extend beyond a Certain
PLINY THE ELDER 803
distance ; their limit appears to be the termination of the air and the com-
mencement of the aether. Above the moon everything is pure and full
of an eternal light. The stars arc visible to us in the night, in the same
way that other luminous bodies are seen in the dark. It is from these
causes that the moon is eclipsed during the night. The two kinds of
eclipses are not, however, at the stated monthly periods, on account of
the obliquity of the zodiac, and the irregularly wandering course of the
moon, as stated above ; besides that the motions of these stars do not
always occur exactly at the same points.
CHAP. 8. (II.) OF THE MAGNITUDE OF THE STARS
This kind of reasoning carries the human mind to the heavens, and
by contemplating the world as it were from thence, it discloses to us the
magnitude of the three greatest bodies in nature. For the sun could not
be entirely concealed from the earth, by the intervention of the moon, if
the earth were greater than the moon. And the vast size of the third
body, the sun, is manifest from that of the other two, so that it is not
necessary to scrutinize its size, by arguing from its visible appearance,
or from any conjectures of the mind ; it must be immense, because the
shadows of rows of trees, extending for any number of miles, are dis-
posed in right lines, as if the sun were in the middle of space. Also,
because, at the equinox, he is vertical to all the inhabitants of the south-
ern districts at the same time; also, because the shadows of all the
people who live on this side of the tropic fall, at noon, towards the north,
and, at sunrise, point to the west. But this could not be the case unless
the sun were much greater than the earth ; nor, unless it much exceeded
Mount Ida in breadth, could he be seen when he rises, passing consid-
erably beyond it to the right and to the left, especially, considering that
it is separated by so great an interval.
The eclipse of the moon affords an undoubted argument of the
sun's magnitude, as it also does of the small size of the earth. For there
are shadows of three figures, and it is evident, that if the body which
produces the shadow be equal to the light, then- it will be thrown off in
the form of a pillar, and have no termination. If the body be greater
than the light, the shadow will be in the form of an inverted cone, the
bottom being the narrowest part, and being, at the same time, of an
infinite length. If the body be less than the light, then we shall have
the figure of a pyramid, terminating in a point. Now of this last kind
is the shadow which produces the eclipse of the moon, and this is so
manifest that there can be no doubt remaining that the earth is exceeded
304 PLINY THE ELDER
in magnitude by the sun, a circumstance which is indeed indicated by
the silent declaration of nature herself. For why does he recede from
us at the winter half of the year? That by the darkness of the nights
the earth may be refreshed, which otherwise would be burned up, as
indeed it is in certain parts, so great is his size.
CHAP. 9. (12.) AN ACCOUNT OF THE OBSERVATIONS THAT HAVE BEEN
MADE ON THE HEAVENS BY DIFFERENT INDIVIDUALS
The first among the Romans, who explained to the people at large
ihe cause of the two kinds of eclipses, was Sulpicius Callus, who was
consul along with Marcellus ; and when he was only a military tribune
he relieved the army from great anxiety the day before King Perseus
was conquered by Paulus; for he was brought by the general into a
public assembly, in order to predict the eclipse, of which he afterwards
gave an account in a separate treatise. Among the Greeks, Thales the
Milesian first investigated the subject, in the fourth year of the forty-
eighth olympiad, predicting the eclipse of the sun which took place in
the reign of Alyattes, in the I7oth year of the City. After them Hip-
parchus calculated the course of both these stars for the term of 600
years, including the months, days, and hours, the situation of the dif-
ferent places and the aspects adapted to each of them ; all this has been
confirmed by experience, and could only be acquired by partaking, as it
were, in the councils of nature. These were indeed great men, superior
to ordinary mortals, who having discovered the laws of these divine
bodies, relieved the miserable mind of man from the fear which he had
of eclipses, as foretelling some dreadful events or the destruction of the
stars. This alarm is freely acknowledged in the sublime strains of
Stesichorus and Pindar, as being produced by an eclipse of the sun.
And with respect to the eclipse of the moon, mortals impute it to witch-
craft, and therefore endeavor to aid her by producing discordant sounds.
In consequence of this kind of terror it was that Nicias, the general of
the Athenians, being ignorant of the cause, was afraid to lead out the
fleet, and brought great distress on his troops. Hail to your genius, ye
interpreters of heaven! ye who comprehend the nature of things, and
who have discovered a mode of reasoning by which ye have conquered
both gods and men ! For who is there, in observing these things and
seeing the labors which the stars are compelled to undergo (since we
have chosen to apply this term to them), that would not cheerfully
submit to his fate, as one born to die ? I shall now, in a brief and sum-
mary manner, touch on those points in which we are agreed, giving the
PLINY THE ELDER 303
reasons where it is necessary to do so ; for this is not a work of profound
argument, nor is it less wonderful to be able to suggest a probable cause
for everything, than to give a complete account of a few of them only.
CHAP. IO. (13.) ON THE RECURRENCES OF THE ECLIPSES OF THE SUN
AND THE MOON
It is ascertained that the eclipses complete their whole revolution
in the space of 223 months, that the eclipse of the sun takes place only
at the conclusion or the commencement of a lunation, which is termed
conjunction, while an eclipse of the moon takes place only when she is
at the full, and is always a little farther advanced than the preceding
eclipse. Now there are eclipses of both these stars in every year, which
take place below the earth, at stated days and hours; and when they are
above it they are not always visible, sometimes on account of the clouds,
but more frequently, from the globe of the earth being opposed to the
vault of the heavens. It was discovered two hundred years ago, by the
sagacity of Hipparchus, that the moon is sometimes eclipsed after an
interval of five months, and the sun after an interval of seven ; also, that
he becomes invisible, while above the horizon, twice in every thirty days,
but that this is seen in different places at different times. But the most
wonderful circumstance is, that while it is admitted that the moon is
darkened by the shadow of the earth, this occurs at one time on its
western, and at another time on its eastern side. And farther, that
although, after the rising of the sun, that darkening shadow ought to
be below the earth, yet it has once happened, that the moon has been
eclipsed in the west, while both the luminaries have been above the hori-
zon. And as to their both being invisible in the space of fifteen days,
this very thing happened while the Vespasians were emperors, the
father being consul for the third time, and the son for the second. —
Natural History, Bk. II.
THE INVENTORS OF VARIOUS THINGS
Before we quit the consideration of the nature of man, it appears
only proper to point out those persons who have been the authors of
different inventions. Father Liber was the first to establish the prac-
tice of buying and selling; he also invented the diadem, the emblem of
royalty, and the triumphal procession. Ceres introduced corn, the
acorn having been previously used by man for food; it was she, also,
300 PLINY THE ELDER
who introduced into Attica the art of grinding corn and of making
bread, and other similar arts into Sicily ; and it was from these circum-
stances that she came to be regarded as a divinity. She was the first
also to establish laws ; though, according to some, it was Rhadamanthus.
I have always been of opinion that letters were of Assyrian origin, but
other writers, Gellius, for instance, suppose that they were invented in
Egypt by Mercury ; others, again, will have it that they were discovered
by the Syrians; and that Cadmus brought from Phoenicia sixteen
letters into Greece. To these, Palamedes, it is said, at the time of the
Trojan war, added these four, Th, X, Ph, and Ch. Cimonides, the lyric
poet, afterwards added a like number, Z, E (long), Ps, and O (long) ;
the sounds denoted by all of which are now received into our alphabet.
Aristotle, on the other hand, is rather of the opinion that there were
originally eighteen letters, ABGDEZIKCMNOPRSTUPh,
and that two, Th namely, and Ch, were introduced by Epicharmus, and
not by Palamedes. Aristides says that a certain person of the name of
Menos, in Egypt, invented letters fifteen years before the reign of
Phoroneus, the most ancient of all the kings of Greece, and this he
attempts to prove by the monuments there. On the other hand, Epi-
genes, a writer of very great authority, informs us that the Babylonians
have a series of observations on the stars, for a period of seven hundred
and twenty thousand years, inscribed on baked bricks. Berosus and
Critodemus, who make the period the shortest, give it as four hundred
and ninety thousand years. From this statement, it would appear that
letters have been in use from all eternity. The Pelasgi were the first to
introduce them into Latium.
The brothers Euryalus and Hyperbius were the first who con-
structed brick kilns and houses at Athens ; before which, caves in the
ground served for houses. Gellius is inclined to think that Toxius, the
son of Caelus, was the first inventor of mortar, it having been suggested
to him by the nest of the swallow. Cecrops gave to a town the name of
Cecropia, after himself ; this is now the citadel of Athena. Some per-
sons will have it that Argos had been founded before this period by
King Phoroneus ; others, again, that Sicyon had been previously built ;
while the Egyptians declare that their own city, Diospolis, had been in
existence long before them. Cinyra, the son of Agriopas, invented tiles
and discovered copper-mines, both of them in the island of Cyprus; he
also invented the tongs, the hammer, the lever, and the anvil. Wells
were invented by Danaus, who came from Egypt into that part of
Greece which had been previously known as Argos Dipsion.
PLINY THE ELDER 307
i nc first stone-quarries were opened by Cadmus at Thebes, or else,
according to Theophrastus, in Phoenicia. Walls were first built by
Thrason ; according to Aristotle, towers were first erected by the Cy-
clopes, but according to Theophrastus, by the Tirynthii. The Egyp-
tians invented weaving ; the Lydians of Sardis the art of dyeing wool.
Closter, the son of Arachne, invented the spindle for spinning wool;
Arachne herself, linen cloth and nets ; Nicias of Megara, the art of full-
ing cloth ; and Tychius, the Boeotian, the art of making shoes. The
Egyptians will have it that the medical art was first discovered among
them, while others attribute it to Arabus, the son of Babylonis and
Apollo ; botany and pharmacy arc ascribed to Chiron, the son of Saturn
and Philyra.
Aristotle supposes that Scythes, the Lydian, was the first to fuse
and temper copper, while Theophrastus ascribes the art to Delas, the
Phryian. Some persons ascribe the working of copper to the Chalybes,
others to the Cyclopes. Hesiod says, that iron was discovered in Crete,
by the Idaean Dactyli. Erichthonius, the Athenian, or, as some people
say, JEacus, discovered silver. Gold mines, and the mode of fusing
that metal, were discovered by Cadmus, the Phoenician, at the moun-
tain of Pangaeus, or, according to other accounts, by Thoas or Eaclis,
in Panchaia; or else by Sol, the son of Oceanus, whom Gellius men-
tions as having been the first who employed honey in medicine. Mida-
critus was the first who brought tin from the island called Cassiteris.
The Cyclopes invented the art of working iron. Choraebus, the Athen-
ian, was the first who made earthen vessels ; but Anacharsis, the Scy-
thian, or, according to others, Hyperbius, the Corinthian, first invented
the potter's wheel. Daedalus was the first person who worked in wood ;
it was he who invented the saw, the axe, the plummet, the gimlet, glue,
and isinglass ; the square, the level, the turner's lathe, and the key, were
invented by Theodorus, of Samos. Measures and weights were in-
vented by Phidon, of Argos, or, according to Gellius, by Palamedes.
Pyrodes, the son of Cilix, was the first to strike fire from the flint, and
Prometheus taught us how to preserve it, in the stalk of giant-fennel.
The Phrygians first taught us the use of the chariot with four
wheels ; the Carthaginians, the arts of merchandize, and Eumolpus, the
Athenian, the cultivation of the vine, and of trees in general. Staphy-
1ns, the son of Silenus, was the first to mix water with wine : olive-oil
and the oil-press, as also honey, we owe to Aristaeus, the Athenian ; the
use of oxen and the plough to Buzyges, the Athenian, or, according to
other accounts, to Triptolemus.
308 PLLNY THB ELDER
The Egyptians were the first who established a monarchical gov-
ernment, and the Athenians, after the time of Theseus, a democracy.
Phalaris, of Agrigentum, was the first tryant that existed ; the Lace-
daemonians were the introducers of slavery ; and the first capital punish-
ment inflicted was ordered by the Areiopagus. The first battles were
fought by the Africans against the Egyptians, with clubs, which they
are in the habit of calling phalangaee. Proetus and Acrisius were the
first to use shields, in their contests with each other ; or, as some say,
Chalcus, the son of Athamas. Midias, the Messenian, invented the coat
of mail, and the Lacedaemonians the helmet, the sword, and the spear.
Greaves and crests were first used by the Carians ; Scythes, the son of
Jupiter, it is said, invented the bow and arrows, though some say that
arrows were invented by the ^Etolians ; the javelin, with the thong at-
tached, by ^Etolus, the son of Mars ; the spear of the light infantry by
Tyrrhenus ; the dart by Penthesilea, the Amazon ; the axe by Pisaeus ;
the hunting-spear, and the scorpion to hurl missiles, by the Cretans;
the catapulta, the balista, and the sling, by the Syrophoenicians. Pisaeus,
the Tyrrhenian, was the first to invent the brazen trumpet, and Arte-
mon, of Clazomenae, the use of the testudo. The battering-horse, for
the destruction of walls, which is at the present day styled the "ram,"
was invented by Epeus, at Troy. Bellerophon was the first who
mounted the horse ; bridles and saddles for the horse were invented by
Pelethronius. The Thessalians, who are called Centauri, and who
dwell along Mount Pelion, were the first to fight on horse-back. The
people of Phrygia were the first who used chariots with two horses;
Erichthonius first used four. Palamedes, during the Trojan war, was
the first who marshalled an army, and invented watchwords, signals,
and the use of sentinels. Sinon, at the same period, invented the art of
correspondence by signals. Lycaon was the first to think of making a
truce, and Theseus a treaty of alliance.
The art of divination by birds we owe to Car, from whom Caria
derives its name; Orpheus extended it to other animals. Delphus
taught us the art of divining by the inspection of entrails ; Amphiaraiis
divination by fire ; and Tiresias, the Theban, presages from the entrails
of birds. We owe to Amphictyon the interpretation of portents and
of dreams, and to Atlas, the son of Libya, the art of astrology, or else,
according to other accounts, to the Egyptians or the Assyrians. Anaxi-
mander, the Milesian, invented the astronomical sphere ; and ^Eolus, the
son of Hellen, gave us the theory of the winds.
Amphion was the inventor of music ; Pan, the son of Mercury, the
PLINY THE ELDER ;,
music of the reed, and the flute with the single pipe ; Midas, the Phryg-
ian, the transverse flute ; and Marsyas, of the same country, the double-
pipe. Amphion invented the Lydian measures in music ; Thamyris the
Thracian, the Dorian, and Marsyas the Phrygian, the Phrygian style.
Amphion, or, according to some accounts, Orpheus, and according to
others, Linus, invented the Lyre. Tcrpander, adding three to the
former four, increased the number of strings to seven ; Simonides added
an eighth, and Timotheus a ninth. Thamyris was the first who played
on the lyre, without the accompaniment of the voice; and Amphion,
or, as some say, Linus, was the first who accompanied it with the voice.
Terpander was the first who composed songs expressly for the lyre;
and Ardalus, the Troezenian, was the first who taught us how to com-
bine the voice with the music of the pipe. The Curetes taught us the
dance in armour, and Pyrrhus, the Pyrrhic dance, both of them in Crete.
We are indebted to the Pythian oracle for the first heroic verse.
A very considerable question has arisen, as to what was the origin of
poetry ; it is well known to have existed before the Trojan war. Phere-
cydes of Scyros, in the time of King Cyrus, was the first to write in
prose, and Cadmus, the Milesian, was the first historian.
Lycaon first instituted gymnastic games, in Arcadia; Acastus
funereal games, at lolcos ; and, after him, Theseus instituted them at
the Isthmus. Hercules first instituted the athletic contests at Olympia.
Pythus invented the game of ball. Painting was invented in Egypt by
Gyges, the Lydian, or, according to Aristotle, in Greece, by Euchir, a
kinsman of Daedalus ; according to Theophrastus, again, it was invented
by Polygnotus, the Athenian.
Danaiis was the first who passed over in a ship from Egypt to
Greece. Before his time, they used to sail on rafts, which has been in-
vented by King Erythras, to pass from one island to another in the Red
Sea. There are some writers to be found, who are of opinion that they
were first thought of by the Mysians and the Trojans, for the purpose
of crossing the Hellespont into Thrace. Even at the present day, they
are made in the British ocean, of wicker-work covered with hides ; on
the Nile they are made of papyrus, rushes, and reeds.
We learn from Philostephanus, that Jason was the first person who
sailed in a long vessel ; Hegesias says it was Paralus, Ctesias, Semi-
ramis, and Archemachus, Egaeon. According to Damastes, the Ery-
thraei was the first to construct vessels with two banks of oars ; accord-
ing to Thucydides, Aminocles, the Corinthian, first constructed them
with three banks of oars; according to Aristotle, the Carthaginians,
310 PUNY THE ELDER
those with four banks ; according to Mnesigiton, the people of Salamis,
those with five banks; and, according to Xenagoras, the Syracusans,
those with six ; those above six, as far as ten, Mnesigiton says were first
constructed by Alexander the Great. From Philostephanus, we learn
that Ptolemy Soter made them as high as twelve banks ; Demetrius, the
son of Antigonus, with fifteen ; Ptolemy Philadelphus, with thirty ; and
Ptolemy Philopater, who was surnamed Tryphon, with forty. Hippus,
the Tyrian, was the first who invented merchant-ships ; the Cyrenians,
the pinnace ; the Phoenicians, the passage-boat ; the Rhodians, the skiff ;
and the Cyprians, the cutter.
We are indebted to the Phoenicians for the first observation of the
stars in navigation ; the Copae invented the oar, and the Plataeans gave
its broad blade. Icarus was the person who invented sails, and Daedalus
the mast and yards ; the Samians, or else Pericles, the Athenian, trans-
ports for horses, and the Thracians, long covered vessels, — before which
time they used to fight only from the prow of the stern. Pisaeus, the
Tyrrhenian, added the beak to ships ; Eupalamus, the anchor ; Anachar-
sis, that with two flukes ; Pericles, the Athenian, grappling-irons, and
hooks like hands; and Tiphys, the helm and rudder. Minos was the
first who waged war by means of ships ; Hyperbius, the son of Mars,
the first who killed an animal ; and Prometheus, the first who slew
the ox.— Natural History, Bk. VII.
TRANSLATIONS OF BOSTOCK AND RILEY.
811
QUINTILIAN
MARCUS FABIUS QUINTTLIANUS was a native of Spain. The date
of his birth was about 35 A. D., of his death about 95 A. D. He began
to plead causes in Spain, but after accompanying Galba to Rome where
he was proclaimed emperor, took up pleading and the teaching of rhe-
toric there.
To understand the position of oratory and of an instructor in it at
Athens or Rome the reader must consider how little there was to learn
then as compared with to-day. The ordinary education of a boy was
supposed to include music, gymnastics, and geometry. Under music
was included Greek and Latin literature, under geometry what little
was known in science. The subjects for education above what might
be called the grammar school were oratory and the philosophers. A
Roman's fields for action were politics and war. He learned to com-
mand in the field, and usually won the right to command through pol-
itics. The open highway through politics was oratory, and hence
oratory was considered practically the only subject worthy to be the
end of a youth's education. So Quintilian won honors and wealth in
his profession. He was highly rewarded by Vespasian and was later
the instructor of the grand nephews of Domitian. His last years were
spent in preparing his work on the education of an orator, the "Insti-
tutes." We give below his ideas of the ideal Roman education prelim-
inary to the education of the orator.
312
THE IDEAL EDUCATION
i. LET A FATHER, then, as soon as his son is born, conceive, first
of all, the best possible hopes of him ; for he will thus grow the more
solicitous about his improvement from the very beginning; since it is
a complaint without foundation that "to very few people is granted the
faculty of comprehending what is imparted to them, and that most,
through dullness of understanding, lose their labor and their time."
For, on the contrary, you will find the greater number of men both
ready in conceiving and quick in learning; since such quickness is
natural to man ; and as birds are born to fly, horses to run, and wild
beasts to show fierceness, so to us peculiarly belong activity and sagacity
of understanding ; whence the origin of the mind is thought to be from
heaven. 2. But dull and unteachable persons are no more produced
in the course of nature than are persons marked by monstrosity and
deformities ; such are certainly but few. It will be a proof of this as-
sertion, that, among boys, good promise is shown in the far greater
number; and, if it passes off in the progress of time, it is manifest that
it was not natural ability, but care, that was wanting. 3. But one sur-
passes another, you will say, in ability. I grant that this is true ; but
only so far as to accomplish more or less ; whereas there is no one who
has not gained something by study. Let him who is convinced of this
truth, bestow, as soon as he becomes a parent, the most vigilant pos-
sible care on cherishing the hopes of a future orator.
4. Before all things, let the talk of the child's nurses not be un-
grammatical. Chrysippus wished them, if possible, to be women of
some knowledge ; at any rate he would have the best, as far as circum-
stances would allow, chosen. To their morals, doubtless, attention is
first to be paid ; but let them also speak with propriety. 5. It is they
that the child will hear first ; it is their words that he will try to form
by imitation. We are by nature most tenacious of what we have im-
bibed in our infant years; as the flavor, with which you scent vessels
when new, remains in them; nor can the colors of wool, for which its
plain whiteness has been exchanged, be effaced; and those very habits,
which are of a more objectionable nature, adhere with the greater
QULNTILIAN 313
tenacity ; for good ones are easily changed for the worse, but when will
you change bad ones into good? Let the child not be accustomed,
therefore, even while he is yet an infant, to phraseology which must be
unlearned.
6. In parents I should wish that there should be as much learning
as possible. Nor do I speak, indeed, merely of fathers ; for we have
heard that Cornelia, the mother of the Gracchi (whose very learned
writing in her letters has come down to posterity), contributed greatly
to their eloquence; the daughter of Laelius is said to have exhibited
her father's elegance in her conversation ; and the oration of the daugh-
ter of Quintus Hortensius, delivered before the Triumviri, is read not
merely as an honor to her sex. 7. Nor let those parents, who have not
had the fortune to get learning themselves, bestow the less care on the
instruction of their children, but let them, on this very account, be more
solicitous as to other particulars.
Of the boys, among whom he who is destined to this prospect is
to be educated, the same may be said as concerning nurses.
8. Of pccdagogi this further may be said, that they should either be
men of acknowledged learning, which I should wish to be the first ob-
ject, or that they should be conscious of their want of learning ; for none
are more pernicious than those who, having gone some little beyond the
first elements, clothe themselves in a mistaken persuasion of their own
knowledge ; since they disdain to yield to those who are skilled in teach-
ing, and, growing imperious, and sometimes fierce, in a certain right,
as it were, of exercising their authority (with which that sort of men
are generally puffed up), they teach only their own folly. 9. Nor is
their misconduct less prejudicial to the manners of their pupils ; for
Leonides, the tutor of Alexander, as is related by Diogenes of Babylon,
tinctured him with certain bad habits, which adhered to him, from his
childish education, even when he was grown up and become the greatest
of kings.
10. If I seem to my reader to require a great deal, let him con-
sider that it is an orator that is to be educated ; an arduous task, even
when nothing is deficient for the formation of his character; and that
more and more difficult labors yet remain ; for there is need of constant
study, the most excellent teachers, and a variety of mental exercises.
II. The best of rules, therefore, are to be laid down: and if any one
shall refuse to observe them, the fault will lie, not in the method, but
in the man.
If, however, it should not be the good fortune of children to have
V 3-20
814 QUINTUU1AN
such nurses as I should wish, let them at least have one attentive pceda-
gogus, not unskilled in language, who, if anything is spoken incorrectly
by the nurse in the presence of his pupil, may at once correct it, and
not let it settle in his mind. But let it be understood that what I pre-
scribed at first is the right course, and this only a remedy.
12. I prefer that a boy should begin with the Greek language, be-
cause he will acquire Latin, which is in general use, even though we
tried to prevent him, and because, at the same time, he ought first to be
instructed in Greek learning, from which ours is derived. 13. Yet I
should not wish this rule to be so superstitiously observed that he should
for a long time speak or learn only Greek, as is the custom with most
people ; for hence arise many faults of pronunciation, which is viciously
adapted to foreign sounds, and also of language, in which when Greek
idioms have become inherent by constant usage, they keep their place
most pertinaciously even when we speak a different tongue. 14. The
study of Latin ought therefore to follow at no long interval, and soon
after to keep pace with the Greek ; and thus it will happen, that, when,
we have begun to attend to both tongues with equal care, neither will
impede the other.
15. Some have thought that boys, as long as they are under seven
years of age, should not be set to learn, because that is the earliest age
that can understand what is taught, and endure the labor of learning.
Of which opinion a great many writers say that Hesiod was, at least
such writers as lived before Aristophanes the grammarian, for he was
the first to deny that the work Hypothekai, in which this opinion
is found, was the work of that poet. 16. But other writers likewise,
among whom is Erastothenes, have given the same advice. Those,
however, advise better, who, like Chrysippus, think that no part of a
child's life should be exempt from tuition ; for Chrysippus, though he
has allowed three years to the nurses, yet is of the opinion that the
minds of children may be imbued with excellent instruction even by
them. 17. And why should not that age be under the influence of
learning, which is now confessedly subject to moral influence? I am
not indeed ignorant that, during the whole time of which I am speak-
ing, scarcely as much can be done as one year may afterwards accom-
plish, yet those who are of the opinion which I have mentioned, appear
with regard to this part of life to have spared not so much the learners
as the teachers. 18. What else, after they are able to speak, will chil-
dren do better, for they must do something? Or why should we
despise the gain, how little soever it be, previous to the age o£ seven
QUINTILiAN 315
years ? For certainly, small as may be the proficiency which an earlier
age exhibits, the child will yet learn something greater during the very
year in which he would have been learning something less. 19. This
advancement extended through each year, is a profit on the whole ; and
whatever is gained in infancy is an acquisition to youth. The same rule
should be prescribed as to the following years, so that what every boy
has to learn, he may not be too late in beginning to learn. Let us not
then lose even the earliest period of life, and so much the less, as the
elements of learning depend on the memory alone, which not only exists
in children, but is at that time of life even most tenacious.
20. Yet I am not so unacquainted with differences of age, as to
think that we should urge those of tender years severely, or exact a full
complement of work from them ; for it will be necessary, above all
things, to take care lest the child should conceive a dislike to the appli-
cation which he cannot yet love, and continue to dread the bitterness
which he has once tasted, even beyond the years of infancy. Let his
instruction be an amusement to him ; let him be questioned and praised ;
and let him never feel pleased that he does not know a thing ; and some-
times, if he is unwilling to learn, let another be taught before him, of
whom he may be envious. Let him strive for victory now and then,
and generally suppose that he gains it ; and let his powers be called
forth by rewards, such as that age prizes.
21. We are giving small instructions, while professing to educate
an orator ; but even studies have their infancy ; and as the rearing of the
very strongest bodies commenced with milk and the cradle, so he, who
was to be the most eloquent of men, once uttered cries, tried to speak
at first with a stuttering voice, and hesitated at the shapes of the letters.
Nor, if it is impossible to learn a thing completely, is it therefore un-
necessary to learn it at all. 22. If no one blames a father, who thinks
that these matters are not to be neglected in regard to his son, why
should he be blamed who communicates to the public what he would
practice to advantage in his own house ? And this is so much the more
the case, as younger minds more easily take in small things ; and as
bodies cannot be formed to certain flexures of the limbs unless while
they are tender, so even strength itself makes our minds likewise more
unyielding to most things. 22. Would Philip, king of Macedonia, have
wished the first principles of learning to be communicated to his son
Alexander by Aristotle, the greatest philosopher of that age, or would
Aristotle have undertaken that office, if they had not both thought that
the first rudiments of instruction are best treated by the most accom-
316 QUINTILIAN
plishecl teacher, and have an influence on the whole course ? 24. Let us
suppose, then, that Alexander were committed to me, and laid in my
lap. an infant worthy of so much solicitude (though every man thinks
his own son worthy of similar solicitude), should I be ashamed, even in
teaching him his very letters, to point out some compendious methods
of instruction?
For that at least, which I see practiced in regard to most children,
by no means pleases me, namely, that they learn the names and order
of the letters before they learn their shapes. 25. This method hinders
their recognition of them, as, while they follow their memory that takes
the lead, they do not fix their attention on the forms of the letters. This
is the reason why teachers, even when they appear to have fixed them
sufficiently in the minds of children, in the straight order in which they
are usually first written, make them go over them again the contrary
way, and confuse them by variously changing the arrangement, until
their pupils know them by their shape, not by their place. It will be
best for children, therefore, to be taught the appearances and names of
the letters at once, as they are taught those of men. 26. But that which
is hurtful with regard to letters, will be no impediment with regard to
syllables. I do not disapprove, however, the practice, which is well
known, of giving children, for the sake of stimulating them to learn,
ivory figures of letters to play with, or whatever else can be invented,
in which that infantine age may take delight, and which may be pleasing
to handle, look at, or name.
27. But as soon as the child shall have begun to trace the forms
of the letters, it will not be improper that they should be cut for him, as
exactly as possible, on a board, that his style may be guided along them
as along grooves, for he will then make no mistakes, as on wax (since
he will be kept in by the edge on each side, and will be unable to stray
beyond the boundary) ; and, by following these sure traces rapidly and
frequently, he will form his hand, and not require the assistance of a
person to guide his hand with his own hand placed over it. 28. The
accomplishment of writing well and expeditiously, which is commonly
disregarded by people of quality, is by no means an indifferent matter ;
for as writing itself is the principal thing in our studies, and that by
which alone sure proficiency, resting on the deepest roots, is secured,
a too slow way of writing retards thought, a rude and confused hand
cannot be read; and hence follows another task, that of reading off
what is to be copied from the writing. 29. At all times, therefore, and
in all places, and especially in writing private and familiar letters, it will
QflXTILIAN 317
be a source of pleasure to us, not to have neglected even this acquire-
ment.
30. For learning syllables there is no short way ; they must all be
learned throughout ; nor are the most difficult of them, as is the general
practice, to be postponed, that children may be at a loss, forsooth, in
writing words. 32. Moreover, we must not even trust to the first learn-
ing by heart ; it will be better to have syllables repeated, and to impress
them long upon the memory ; and in reading too, not to hurry on, in
order to make it continuous or quick, until the clear and certain connex-
ion of the letters become familiar, without at least any necessity to stop
for recollection. Let the pupil then begin to form words from syllables,
and to join phrases together from words. 32. It is incredible how much
retardation is caused to reading by haste ; for hence arise hesitation, in-
terruption, and repetition, as children attempt more than they can man-
age ; and then, after making mistakes, they become distrustful even of
what they know. 33. Let reading, therefore, be at first sure, then con-
tinuous, and for a long time slow, until, by exercise, a correct quickness
is gained. 34 For to look to the right, as everybody teaches, and to
look forward, depends not merely on rule, but on habit, since, while the
child is looking to what follows, he has to pronounce what goes before,
and what is very difficult, the direction of his thoughts must be divided,
so that one duty may be discharged with his voice, and another with his
eyes.
When the child shall have begun, as is the practice, to write words,
it will cause no regret if we take care that he may not waste his efforts
on common words, and such as perpetually occur. 35. For he may
readily learn the explanations of obscure terms, which the Greeks call
glossai, while some other occupation is before him, and acquire
amidst his first rudiments, a knowledge of that which would afterwards
demand a special time for it. Since, too, we are still attending to small
matters, I would express a wish that even the lines, which are set him
for his imitation in writing, should not contain useless sentences, but
such as convey some moral instruction. 36. The resemblance of such
admonitions will attend him to old age, and will be of use even for the
formation of his character. It is possible for him, also, to learn the
sayings of eminent men, and select passages, chiefly from the poets ( for
the reading of poets is more pleasing to the young), in his play-time;
since memory (as I shall show in its proper place) is most necessary to
an orator, and is eminently strengthened and nourished by exercise;
and, at the age of which we are now speaking, and which cannot, as yet,
318 QU1NTILIAN
produce anything of itself, it is almost the only faculty that can be
improved by the aid of teachers. 3^. It will not be improper, however,
to require of boys of this age (in order that their pronunciation may be
fuller and their speech more distinct) to roll forth, as rapidly as pos-
sible, certain words and lines of studied difficulty, composed of several
syllables, and those roughly clashing together, and, as it were, rugged-
sounding ; the Greeks call them chalepoi. This may seem a trifling mat-
ter to mention, but when it is neglected, many faults of pronunciation,
unless they are removed in the years of youth, are fixed by incorrigible
ill habit for the rest of life.
CHAPTER II.
i. But let us suppose that the child now gradually increases in
size, leaves the lap, and applies himself to learning in earnest. In this
place, accordingly, must be considered the question, whether it be more
advantageous to confine the learner at home, and within the walls of a
private house, or to commit him to the large numbers of a school, and,
as it were, to public teachers. 2. The latter mode, I observe, has had
the sanction of those by whom the polity of the most eminent states was
settled, as well as that of the most illustrious authors.
Yet it is not to be concealed, that there are some who, from certain
notions of their own, disapprove of this almost public mode of instruc-
tion. These persons appear to be swayed chiefly by two reasons : one,
that they take better precautions for the morals of the young, by avoid-
ing a concourse of human beings of that age which is most prone to
vice; (from which cause I wish it were falsely asserted that provoca-
tions to immoral conduct arise;) the other, that whoever may be the
teacher, he is likely to bestow his time more liberally on one pupil, than
it he has to divide it among several. 3. The first reason indeed deserves
great consideration ; for if it were certain that schools, though advanta-
geous to studies, are pernicious to morals, a virtuous course of life
would seem to me preferable to one even of the most distinguished
eloquence. But in my opinion, the two are combined and inseparable;
for I am convinced that no one can be an orator who is not a good man ;
and, even if any one could, I should be unwilling that he should be.
On this point, therefore, I shall speak first.
4. People think that morals are corrupted in schools; for indeed
they are at times corrupted; but such may be the case even at Home.
QUINTIL1AN 310
Many proofs of this fact may be adduced ; proofs of character having
been vitiated, as well as preserved with the utmost purity, under both
modes of education. It is the disposition of the individual pupil, and
the care taken of him, that make the whole difference. Suppose that his
mind be prone to vice, suppose that there be neglect in forming and
guarding his morals in early youth, seclusion would afford no less op-
portunity for immorality than publicity ; for the private tutor may be
himself of bad character; nor is intercourse with vicious slaves at all
safer than that with immodest free-born youths. 5. But if his disposi-
tion be good, and if there be not a blind and indolent negligence on the
part of his parents, it will be possible for them to select a tutor of irre-
proachable character, (a matter to which the utmost attention is paid by
sensible parents,) and to fix on a course of instruction of the very strict-
est kind ; while they may at the same time place at the elbow of their
son some influential friend or faithful freedman, whose constant attend-
ance may improve even those of whom apprehensions may be enter-
tained.
6. The remedy for this object of fear is easy. Would that we
ourselves did not corrupt the morals of our children ! We enervate
their very infancy with luxuries. That delicacy of education, which we
call fondness, weakens all the powers, both of body and mind. What
luxury will he not covet in his manhood, who crawls about on purple !
He cannot yet articulate his first words, when he already distinguishes
scarlet, and wants his purple. 7. We form the palate of children before
we form their pronunciation. They grow up in sedan chairs ; if they
touch the ground, they hang by the hands of attendants supporting
them on each side. We are delighted if they utter any thing immodest.
Expressions which would not be tolerated even from the effeminate
youths of Alexandria, we hear from them with a smile and a kiss. Nor
is this wonderful ; we have taught them ; they have heard such language
from ourselves. 8. They see our mistresses, our male objects of affec-
tion ; every dining-room rings with impure songs ; things shameful to
be told are objects of sight. From such practices springs habit, and
afterwards nature. The unfortunate children learn these vices before
they know that they are vices: and hence, rendered effeminate and lux-
urious, they do not imbibe immorality from schools, but cam* it them-
selves into schools.
9. But it is said, one tutor will have more time for one pupil.
First of all, however, nothing prevents that one pupil, whoever he may
be, from being the same with him who is taught in the school. But if
320 QUINTILIAN
the two objects cannot be united, I should still prefer the day-light of an
honorable seminary to darkness and solitude ; for every eminent teacher
delights in a large concourse of pupils, and thinks himself worthy of a
still more numerous auditory. 10. But inferior teachers, from a con-
sciousness of their inability, do not disdain to fasten on single pupils,
and to discharge the duty as it were of pcedagogi. n. But supposing
that their interest, or friendship, or money, should secure to any parent
a domestic tutor of the highest learning, and in every respect unrivalled,
will he however spend the whole day on one pupil ? Or can the applica-
tion of any pupil be so constant as not to be sometimes wearied, like the
sight of the eyes, by continued direction to one object, especially as
study requires the far greater portion of time to be solitary. 12. For
the tutor does not stand by the pupil while he is writing, or learning by
heart, or thinking; and when he is engaged in any of those exercises,
the company of any person whatsoever is a hindrance to him. Nor
does every kind of reading require at all times a praelector or inter-
preter; for when, if such were the case, would the knowledge of so
many authors be gained ? The time, therefore, during which the work
as it were for the whole day may be laid out, is but short. 13. Thus
the instructions which are to be given to each, may reach to many.
Most of them, indeed, are of such a nature that they may be com-
municated to all at once with the same exertion of the voice. I say
nothing of the topics and declamations of the rhetoricians, at which,
certainly, whatever be the number of the audience, each will still carry
off the whole. 14. For the voice of the teacher is not like a meal, which
will not suffice for more than a certain number, but like the sun, which
diffuses the same portion of light and heat to all. If a grammarian, too,
discourses on the art of speaking, solves questions, explains matters of
history, or illustrates poems, as many as shall hear him will profit by his
instructions. 15. But, it may be said, number is an obstacle to correc-
tion and explanation. Suppose that this be a disadvantage in a number,
(for what in general satisfies us in every respect?) we will soon com-
pare that disadvantage with other advantages.
Yet I would not wish a boy to be sent to a place where he will be
neglected. Nor should a good master encumber himself with a greater
number of scholars than he can manage ; and it is to be a chief object
with us, also, that the master may be in every way our kind friend, and
may have regard in his teaching, not so much to duty, as to affection.
Thus we shall never be confounded with the multitude. 16. Nor will
any master, who is in the slightest degree tinctured with literature, fail
QU1NTILIAN 3^1
particularly to cherish that pupil in whom he shall observe application
and genius, even for his own honor. But even if great schools ought to
be avoided (a position to which I cannot assent, if numbers flock to a
master on account of his merit), the rule is not to be carried so far that
schools should be avoided altogether. It is one thing to shun schools,
another to choose from them.
17. If I have now refuted the objections which are made to
schools, let me next state what opinions I myself entertain. 18. First
of all, let him who is to be an orator, and who must live amidst the
greatest publicity, and in the full day-light of public affairs, accustom
himself, from his boyhood, not to be abashed at the sight of men, nor
pine in a solitary and as it were recluse way of life. The mind requires
to be constantly excited and roused, while in such retirement it either
languishes, and contracts rust, as it were, in the shade, or, on the other
hand, becomes swollen with empty conceit, since he who compares him-
self to no one else, will necessarily attribute too much to his own
powers. 19. Besides, when his acquirements are to be displayed in
public, he is blinded at the light of the sun, and stumbles at every new
object, as having learned in solitude that which is to be done in public.
20. I say nothing of friendships formed at school, which remain in full
force even to old age, as if cemented with a certain religious obligation ;
for to have been initiated in the same studies is a not less sacred bond
than to have been initiated in the same sacred rites. That sense, too,
which is called common sense, where shall a young man learn when he
has separated himself from society, which is natural not to men only,
but even to dumb animals? 21. Add to this, that, at home, he can
learn only what is taught himself ; at school, even what is taught others.
22. He will daily hear many things commended, many things corrected ;
the idleness of a fellow student, when reported, will be a warning to
him ; the industry of any one, when commended, will be a stimulus ;
emulation will be excited by praise ; and he will think it a disgrace to
yield to his equals in age, and an honor to surpass his seniors. All
these matters excite the mind; and though ambition itself be a vice,
yet it is often the parent of virtues. . .
23. I remember a practice that was observed by my masters, not
without advantage. Having divided the boys into classes, they assigned
them their order in speaking in conformity to the abilities of each ; and
thus each stood in the higher place to declaim according as he appeared
to excel in proficiency. 24. Judgments were pronounced on the per-
formances; and great was the strife among us for distinction; but to
322 QU1NTILIAN
take the lead of the class was by far the greatest honor. Nor was sen-
tence given on our merits only once; the thirtieth day brought the
vanquished an opportunity of contending again. Thus he who was
most successful, did not relax his efforts, while uneasiness incited the
unsuccessful to retrieve his honor. 25. I should be inclined to main-
tain, as far as I can form a judgment from what I conceive in my own
mind, that this method furnished stronger incitements to the study of
eloquence, than the exhortations of preceptors, the watchfulness of
pcedagogi, or the wishes of parents.
26. But as emulation is of use to those who have made some ad-
vancement in learing, so, to those who are but beginning, and are still
of tender age, to imitate their school-fellows is more pleasant than to
imitate their master, for the very reason that it is more easy ; for they
who are learning the first rudiments will scarcely dare to exalt them-
selves to the hope of attaining that eloquence which they regard as the
highest ; they will rather fix on what is nearest to them, as vines at-
tached to trees gain the top by taking hold of the lower branches first
27. This is an observation of such truth, that it is the care even of th#
master himself, when he has to instruct minds that are still unformed,
not (if he prefer at least the useful to the showy) to overburden the
weakness of his scholars, but to moderate his strength, and to let him-
self down to the capacity of the learner. 28. For as narrow-necked
vessels reject a great quantity of the liquid that is poured upon them,
but are filled by that which flows or is poured into them by degrees,
so it is for us to ascertain how much the minds of boys can receive,
since what is too much for their grasp of intellect will not enter their
minds, as not being sufficiently expanded to admit it. 29. It is of ad-
vantage therefore for a boy to have school- fellows whom he may first
imitate, and afterwards try to surpass. Thus will he gradually con-
ceive hope of higher excellence.
To these observations I shall add, that masters themselves, when
they have but one pupil at a time with them, cannot feel the same degree
of energy and spirit in addressing him, as when they are excited by a
large number of hearers. 30. Eloquence depends in a great degree on
the state of the mind, which must conceive images of objects, and trans-
form itself, so to speak, to the nature of the things of which we dis-
course. Besides, the more noble and lofty a mind is, by the more pow-
erful springs, as it were, is it moved, and accordingly is both strength-
ened by praise, and enlarged by effort, and is filled with joy at achiev-
ing something great. 31. But a certain secret disdain is felt at Irtv/cr-
QUINTILIAN 323
ing the power of eloquence, acquired by so much labor, to one auditor :
and the teacher is ashamed to raise his style above the level of ordinary
conversation. Let any one imagine, indeed, the air of a man harangu-
ing, or the voice of one entreating, the gesture, the pronunciation, the
agitation of mind and body, the exertion, and, to mention nothing else,
the fatigue, while he has but one auditor; would not he seem to be
affected with something like madness? There would be no eloquence
in the world, if we were to speak only with one person at a time.
CHAPTER III.
I. Let him that is skilled in teaching, ascertain first of all, when
a boy is entrusted to him, his ability and disposition. The chief symp-
tom of ability in children is memory, of which the excellence is two-fold,
to receive with ease and retain with fidelity. The next symptom is imita-
tion ; for that is an indication of a teachable disposition, but with this
provision, that it express merely what it is taught, and not a person's
manner or walk, for instance, or whatever may be remarkable for de-
formity. 2. The boy who shall make it his aim to raise a laugh by his
love of mimicry, will afford me no hope of good capacity ; for he who
is possessed of great talent will be well disposed ; else I should think
it not at all worse to be of a dull, than of a bad, disposition ; but he who
is honorably inclined will be very different from the stupid or idle. 3.
Such a pupil as I would have, will easily learn what is taught him, and
will ask questions about some things, but will still rather follow than
run on before. That precocious sort of talent scarcely ever comes to
good fruit. 4. Such are those who do little things easily, and, impelled
by impudence, show at once all that they can accomplish in such mat-
ters. But they succeed only in what is ready to their hand ; they string
words together, uttering them with an intrepid countenance, not in the
least discouraged by bashfulness; and do little, but do it readily. 5.
There is no real power behind, or any that rests on deeply fixed roots ;
but they are like seeds which have been scattered on the surface of the
ground and shoot up prematurely, and like grass that resembles corn,
and grows yellow, with empty ears, as compared with their harvest.
Their efforts give pleasure, as compared with their years; but their
progress comes to a stand, and our wonder diminishes.
6. When a tutor has observed these indications, let him next con-
sider how the mind of his pupil is to be managed. Some boys are
324 QUINTILIAN
indolent, unless you stimulate them ; some are indignant at being com-
manded; fear restrains some, and unnerves others; continued labor
forms some ; with others, hasty efforts succeed better. 7. Let the boy
be given to me, whom praise stimulates, whom honor delights, who
weeps when he is unsuccessful. His powers must be cultivated under
the influence of ambition ; reproach will sting him to the quick ; honor
will incite him; and in such a boy I shall never be apprehensive of
indifference.
8. Yet some relaxation is to be allowed to all ; not only because
there is nothing that can bear perpetual labor, (and even those things
that are without sense and life are unbent by alternate rest, as it were,
in order that they may preserve their vigor,) but because application to
learning depends on the will, which cannot be forced. 9. Boys, accord-
ingly, when re-invigorated and refreshed, bring more sprightliness to
their learning, and a more determined spirit, which for the most part
spurns compulsion. 10. Nor will play in boys displease me; it is a
sign of vivacity ; and I cannot expect that he who is always dull and
spiritless will be of an eager disposition in his studies, when he is
indifferent even to that excitement which is natural to his age. II.
There must however be bonds set to relaxation, lest the refusal of it
beget an aversion to study, or too much indulgence in it a habit of
idleness. There are some kinds of amusement, too, not unserviceable
for sharpening the wits of boys, as when they contend with each other
by proposing all sorts of questions in turn. 12. In their plays, also,
their moral dispositions show themselves more plainly, supposing that
there is no age so tender that it may not readily learn what is right and
wrong; and the tender age may best be formed at a time when it is
ignorant of dissimulation, and most willingly submits to instructors;
for you may break, sooner than mend, that which has hardened into
deformity. 13. A child is as early as possible, therefore, to be admo-
nished that he must do nothing too eagerly, nothing dishonestly, noth-
ing without self-control ; and we must always keep in mind the maxim
of Virgil, Adeo in teneris consuescere multum est, "of so much import-
ance is the acquirement of habit in the young."
14. But that boys should suffer corporal punishment, though it be
a received custom, and Chrysippus makes no objection to it, I by no
means approve; first, because it is a disgrace, and a punishment for
slaves, and in reality (as will be evident if you imagine the age changed)
an affront ; secondly, because, if a boy's disposition be so abject as not
to be amended by reproof, he will be hardened, like the worst of slaves,
3J3
even to stripes; and lastly, because, if one who regularly exacts his
tasks be with him, there will not be the least need of any such chastise-
ment. 15. At present, the negligence of pcedagogi seems to be made
amends for in such a way that boys are not obliged to do what is right,
but are punished whenever they have not done it. Besides, after you
have coerced a boy with stripes, how will you treat him when he be-
comes a young man, to whom such terror cannot be held out, and by
whom more difficult studies must be pursued? 16. Add to these con-
siderations, that many things unpleasant to be mentioned, and likely
afterwards to cause shame, often happen to boys while being whipped,
under the influence of pain or fear; and such shame enervates and
depresses the mind, and makes them shun people's sight and feel a con-
stant uneasiness. 17. If, moreover, there has been too little care in
choosing governors and tutors of reputable character, I am ashamed to
say how scandalously unworthy men may abuse their privilege of pun-
ishing, and what opportunity also the terror of the unhappy children
may sometimes afford to others. I will not dwell upon this point;
what is already understood is more than enough. It will be sufficient
therefore to intimate, that no man should be allowed too much author-
ity over an age so weak and so unable to resist ill-treatment.
1 8. I will now proceed to show in what studies he who is to be so
trained that he may become an orator, must be instructed, and which
of them must be commenced at each particular period of youth.
CHAPTER IV.
I. In regard to the boy who has attained facility in reading and
writing, the next object is instruction from the grammarians. Nor is
it of importance whether I speak of the Greek or Latin grammarian,
though I am inclined to think that the Greek should take the prece-
dence. 2. Both have the same method. This profession, then, distin-
guished as it is, most compendiously, into two parts, the art of speaking
correctly, and the illustration of the poets, carries more beneath the sur-
face than it shows on its front. 3. For not only is the art of writing
combined with that of speaking, but correct reading also precedes illus-
tration, and with all these is joined the exercise of judgment, which the
old grammarians, indeed, used with such severity, that they not only
allowed themselves to distinguish certain verses with a peculiar mark
of censure, and to remove, as spurious, certain books which had been
320 QU1N flLIAN
inscribed with false titles, from their sets, but even brought some
authors within their canon, and excluded others altogether from classi-
fication. 4. Nor is it sufficient to have read the poets only ; every class
of writers must be studied, not simply for matter, but for words, which
often receive their authority from writers. Nor can grammar be com-
plete without a knowledge of music, since the grammarian has to speak
of metre and rhythm ; nor if he is ignorant of astronomy, can he under-
stand the poets, who, to say nothing of other matters, so often allude to
the rising and setting of the stars in marking the seasons ; nor must he
be unacquainted with philosophy, both on account of numbers of pas-
sages, in almost all poems, drawn from the most abstruse subtleties of
physical investigation, and also on account of Empedocles among the
Greeks, and Varro and Lucretius among the Latins, who have com-
mitted the precepts of philosophy to verse. 5. The grammarian has
also need of no small portion of eloquence, that he may speak aptly and
fluently on each of those subjects which are here mentioned. Those
therefore are by no means to be regarded who deride this science as
trifling and empty, for unless it lays a sure foundation for the future
orator, whatever superstructure you raise will fall ; it is a science which
is necessary to the young, pleasing to the old, and an agreeable com-
panion in retirement, and which alone, of all departments of learning,
has in it more service than show. — The Institutes, Bk. I. 1-4.
TRANSLATION OF JOHN SELBY WATSON.
The two principal schools <>f Greek philosophy which took root in
Roman life were stoicism and Epicureanism. Seiicca was a disciple of
the stoic school. Stoicism AJ$<^e<?TO«nnKrnappi ness was in doing
one's duty, and that only in this wiJP'dflkM^man rise superior in mind
above the troubles of life. They believed duty consisted in acting in
accord with the eternal laws of nature. In contrast to the stoic doctrines
he became the tutor of Net", wv . »
reign is due to him. Ktu »'jt .. ! • • .rn
drove him into the most awful orgies of \icr ;.n J em*?, and alter Nero
i murdered his own wicked mother A^ri; ; ^a SIM,,-.. u!«l to post-
death he saw impending over himself by presenting Nero with
immense wealth and begging the privilege of retiring from Rome.
late: he was falsely charged with conspiracy and cotn-
•>\ Ms »*ay toward Peace of Mind, the end sought bv
TEMPLE OF VESTA
.!/ Til-alt.
iZl
SENECA
Lucius ANNAEUS SENECA was born at Corduba, the modern Cor-
dova of Spain, about 4 B. C, and died in 65 A. D.
The two principal schools of Greek philosophy which took root in
Roman life were stoicism and Epicureanism. Seneca was a disciple of
the stoic school. Stoicism believed that true happiness was in doing
one's duty, and that only in this way could man rise superior in mind
above the troubles of life. They believed duty consisted in acting in
accord with the eternal laws of nature. In contrast to the stoic doctrines
which he believed in and wrote upon, Seneca led the life of the most
typical of courtiers. He won his first honors at Rome as an advocate
and came near being murdered by the order of the envious Caligula for
them ; the next emperor, Claudius, banished him to Corsica, and he was
kept there for eight years in spite of his attempts through the most
abject flattery to be recalled. On the murder of Claudius by Agrippina
he became the tutor of Nero, and it is probable that the first promise
of Nero's reign is due to him. But the mad fever in Nero's blood soon
drove him into the most awful orgies of vice and crime, and after Nero
had murdered his own wicked mother Agrippina, Seneca tried to post-
pone the death he saw impending over himself by presenting Nero with
his immense wealth and begging the privilege of retiring from Rome.
It was too late: he was falsely charged with conspiracy and com-
manded to kill himself, which he did like a Roman and a stoic.
We give below his essay toward Peace of Mind, the end sought by
his moral philosophy.
OF PEACE OF MIND
ADDRESSED TO SERENUS
I. [Serenus.]
WHEN I examine myself, Seneca, some vices appear on the surface,
and so that I can lay my hands upon them, while others are less distinct
and harder to reach, and some are not always present, but recur at in-
tervals : and these I should call the most troublesome, being like a rov-
ing enemy that assails one when he sees his opportunity, and who will
neither let one stand on one's guard as in war, nor yet take one's rest
without fear as in peace. The position in which I find myself more
especially (for why should I not tell you the truth as I would to a
physician), is that of neither being thoroughly set free from the vices
which I fear and hate, nor yet quite in bondage to them ; my state of
mind, though not the worst possible, is a particularly discontented and
sulky one : I am neither ill nor well. It is of no use for you to tell me
that all virtues are weakly at the outset, and that they acquire strength
and solidity by time, for I am well aware that even those which do but
help our outward show, such as grandeur, a reputation for eloquence,
and everything that appeals to others, gain power by time. Both those
which afford us real strength and those which do but trick us out in a
more attractive form, require long years before they gradually are
adapted to us by time. But I fear that custom, which confirms most
things, implants this vice more and more deeply in me. Long acquaint-
ance with both good and bad people leads one to esteem them all alike.
What this state of weakness really is, when the mind halts between two
opinions without any strong inclination towards either good or evil, I
shall be better able to show you piecemeal than all at once. I will tell
you what befalls me, you must find out the name of the disease. I have
to confess the greatest possible love of thrift. I do not care for a bed
with gorgeous hangings, nor for clothes brought out of a chest, or
pressed under weights and made glossy by frequent manglings, but
for common and cheap ones, that require no care either to keep them or
to put them on. For food I do not want what needs whole troops of
SENECA 320
servants to prepare it and admire it, nor what is ordered many days
before and served up by many hands, but something handy and easily
come at, with nothing far-fetched or costly about it, to be had in every
part of the world, burdensome neither to one's fortune nor one's body,
not likely to go out of the body by the same path by which it came in.
I like a rough and unpolished homebred servant, I like my servant born
in my house : I like my country-bred father's heavy silver plate stamped
with no maker's name : I do not want a table that is beauteous with
dappled spots, or known to all the town by the number of fashionable
people to whom it has successively belonged, but one which stands
merely for use, and which causes no guest's eye to dwell upon it with
pleasure or to kindle at it with envy. While I am well satisfied with
this, I am reminded of the clothes of a certain school boy, dressed with
no ordinary care and splendor, of slaves bedecked with gold and a
whole regiment of glittering attendants. I think of houses too, where
one treads on precious stones, and where valuables lie about in every
corner, where the very roof is brilliantly painted, and a whole nation
attends and accompanies an inheritance on the road to ruin. What can
I say of waters, transparent to the very bottom, which flow round the
guests, and banquets worthy of the theater in which they take place?
Coming as I do from a long course of dull thrift, I find myself sur-
rounded by the most brilliant luxury, which echoes around me on every
side: my sight becomes a little dazzled by it: I can lift up my heart
against it more easily than my eyes. When I return from seeing it I
am a sadder, though not a worse man, I cannot walk amid my own
paltry possessions with so lofty a step as before, and silently there
steals over me a feeling of vexation, and a doubt whether that way of
life may not be better than mine. None of these things alter my prin-
ciples, yet all of them disturb me. At one time I would obey the maxims
of our school and plunge into public life, I would obtain office and
become consul, not because the purple robe and lictor's staves attract me,
but in order that I may be able to be of use to my friends, my relatives,
to all my countrymen, and indeed to all mankind. Ready and deter-
mined, I follow the advice of Zeno, Geanthes, and Chrysippus, all of
whom bid one take part in public affairs, though none of them ever did
so himself: and then, as soon as something disturbs my mind, which
is not used to receiving shocks, as soon as something occurs which is
either disgraceful, such as often occurs in all men's lives, or which does
not proceed quite easily, or when subjects of very little importance re-
quire me to devote a great deal of time to them, I go back to my life of
V 3-21
330 SENECA
leisure, and, just as even tired cattle go faster when they are going
home, I wish to retire and pass my life within the walls of my house.
"No one," I say, "that will give me no compensation worth such a loss
shall ever rob me of a day. Let my mind be contained within itself and
improve itself : let it take no part with other men's affairs, and do noth-
ing which depends on the approval of others : let me enjoy a tranquility
undisturbed by either public or private troubles.." But whenever my
spirit is roused by reading some brave words, or some noble example
spurs me into action, I want to rush into the law courts, to place my
voice at one man's disposal, my services at another's, and to try to help
him even though I may not succeed, or to quell the pride of some lawyer
who is puffed up by ill-deserved success: but I think, by Hercules,
that in philosophical speculation it is better to view things as they are,
and to speak of them on their own account, and as for words, to trust
to thingstfor them, and to let one's speech simply follow whither they
lead. "Why do you want to construct a fabric that will endure for
ages ? Do you not wish to do this in order that posterity may talk of
you : yet you were born to die, and a silent death is the least wretched.
Write something therefore in a simple style, merely to pass the time,
for your own use, and not for publication. Less labor is needed when
one does not look beyond the present." Then again, when the mind is
elevated by the greatness of its thoughts, it becomes ostentatious in its
use of words, the loftier its aspirations, the more loftily it desires to
express them, and its speech rises to the dignity of its subject. At such
times I forget my mild and moderate determination and soar higher
than is my wont, using a language that is not my own. Not to multiply
examples, I am in all things attended by this weakness of a well-mean-
ing mind, to whose level I fear that I shall be gradually brought down,
or, what is even more worrying, that I may always hang as though
about to fall, and that there may be more the matter with me than I
myself perceive : for we take a friendly view of our own private affairs,
and partiality always obscures our judgment. I fancy that many men
would have arrived at wisdom had they not believed themselves to
have arrived there already, had they not purposely deceived themselves
as to some parts of their character, and passed by others with their
eyes shut : for you have no grounds for supposing that other people's
flattery is more ruinous to us than our own. Who dares to tell himself
the truth ? Who is there, by however large a troop of caressing cour-
tiers he may be surrounded, who in spite of them is not his own greatest
flatterer? I beg you, therefore, if you have any remedy by which you
SENECA 331
could stop this vacillation of mine, to deem me worthy to owe my peace
of mind to you. I am well aware that these oscillations of mind are
not perilous and that they threaten me with no serious disorder: to
express what I complain of by an exact simile, I am not suffering from
a storm, but from sea-sickness. Take from me, then, this evil, whatever
it may be, and help one who is in distress within sight of land.
II. [Seneca.]
I have long been silently asking myself, my friend Serenus, to
what I should liken such a condition of mind, and I find that nothing
more closely resembles it than the conduct of those who, after having
recovered from a long and serious illness, occasionally experience slight
touches and twinges, and although they have passed through the final
stages of the disease, yet have suspicions that it has not left them, and
zhough in perfect health yet hold out their pulse to be felt by the physi-
cian, and whenever they feel warm suspect that the fever is returning.
Such men, Serenus, are not unhealthy, but they are not accustomed to
being healthy ; just as even a quiet sea or lake nevertheless displays a
certain amount of ripple when its waters are subsiding after a storm.
What you need, therefore, is, not any of those harsher remedies to
which allusion has been made, not that you should in some cases check
yourself, in others be angry with yourself, in others sternly reproach
yourself, but that you should adopt that which comes last in the list,
have confidence in yourself, and believe that you are proceeding on the
right path, without being led aside by the numerous divergent tracks
of wanderers which cross it in every direction, some of them circling
about the right path itself. What you desire, to be undisturbed, is a
great thing, nay, the greatest thing of all, and one which raises a man
almost to the level of a god. The Greeks call this calm steadiness of
mind euthymia, and Democritus' treatise upon it is excellently written :
I call it peace of mind: for there is no necessity for translating so
exactly as to copy the words of the Greek idiom : the essential point is
to mark the matter under discussion by a name which ought to have the
same meaning as its Greek name, though perhaps not the same form.
What we are seeking, then, is how the mind may always pursue a
steady, unruffled course, may be pleased with itself, and look with
pleasure upon its surroundings, and experience no interruption of this
joy, but abide in a peaceful condition without being ever either elated
532 SENECA
or depressed : this will be "peace of mind." Let us now consider in a
general way how it may be attained : then you may apply as much as
you choose of the universal remedy to your own case. Meanwhile we
must drag to light the entire disease, and then each one will recognize
his own part of it : at the same time you will understand how much
Lss you suffer by your self-depreciation than those who are bound by
some grand title of honor, so that shame rather than their own free will
forces them to keep up the pretense. The same thing applies both to
those who suffer from fickleness and continual changes of purpose, who
always are fondest of what they have given up, and those who merely
yawn and dawdle : add to these those who, like bad sleepers, turn from
side to side, and settle themselves first in one manner and then in an-
other, until at last they nnd rest through sheer weariness : in forming
the habits of their lives they often end by adopting some to which they
are not kept by any dislike of change, but in the practice of which old
age, which is slow to alter, has caught them living : add also those who
are by no means fickle, yet who must thank their dullness, not their con-
sistency for being so, and who go on living not in the way they wish,
but in the way they have begun to live. There are other special forms
of this disease without number, but it has but one effect, that of making
people dissatisfied with themselves. This arises from a distemperature
of mind and from desires which one is afraid to express or unable to
fulfill, when men either dare not attempt as much as they wish to do,
or fail in their efforts and depend entirely upon hope : such people are
always fickle and changeable, which is a necessary consequence of living
in a state of suspense : they take any way to arrive at their ends, and
teach and force themselves to use both dishonorable and difficult means
to do so, so that when their toil has been in vain they are made wretched
by the disgrace of failure, and do not regret having longed for what
was wrong, but having longed for it in vain. They then begin to feel
sorry for what they have done, and afraid to begin again, and their mind
falls by degrees into a state of endless vacillation, because they can
neither command nor obey their passions, of hesitation, because their
life cannot properly develop itself, and of decay, as the mind becomes
stupified by disappointments. All these symptoms become aggravated
when their dislike of a laborious misery has driven them to idleness and
to secret studies, which are unendurable to a mind eager to take part in
public affairs, desirous of action and naturally restless, because, of
course, it finds too few resources within itself : when therefore it loses
the amusement which business itself affords to busy men, it cannot
SENECA 333
endure home, loneliness, or the walls of a room, and regards itself with
dislike when left to itself. Hence arises that weariness and dissatisfac-
tion with oneself, that tossing to and fro of a mind which can nowhere
find rest, that unhappy and unwilling endurance of enforced leisure.
In all cases where one feels ashamed to confess the real cause of one's
suffering, and where modesty leads one to drive one's suffering inward,
the desires pent up in a little space without any vent choke one another.
Hence comes melancholy and drooping of spirit, and a thousand waver-
ings of the unsteadfast mind, which is held in suspense by unfulfilled
hopes, and saddened by disappointed ones: hence comes the state of
mind of those who loathe their idleness, complain that they have noth-
ing to do, and view the progress of others with the bitterest jealousy :
for an unhappy sloth favors the growth of envy, and men who cannot
succeed themselves wish every one else to be ruined. This dislike of
other men's progress and despair of one's own produces a mind angered
against fortune, addicted to complaining of the age in which it lives,
to retiring into corners and brooding over its misery, until it becomes
sick and weary of itself : for the human mind is naturally nimble and
apt at movement : it delights in every opportunity of excitement and
forgctfulness of itself, and the worse a man's disposition the more he
delights in this, because he likes to wear himself out with busy action,
just as some sores long for the hands that injure them and delight in
being touched, and the foul itch enjoys anything that scratches it.
Similarly I assure you that these minds, over which desires have spread
like evil ulcers, take pleasure in toils and troubles, for there are some
things which please our body while at the same time they give it a
certain amount of pain, such as turning oneself over and changing one's
side before it is wearied, or cooling oneself in one position after another.
It is like Homer's Achilles, lying first upon its face, then upon its back,
placing itself in various attitudes, and, as sick people are wont, enduring
none of them for long, and using changes as though they were remedies.
Hence men undertake aimless wanderings, travel along distant shores,
and at one time at sea, at another by land, try to soothe that fickleness
of disposition which always is dissatisfied with the present. "Now let
us make for Campania : now I am sick of rich cultivation : let us see
wild regions, let us thread the passes of Bruttii and Lucania : yet amid
this wilderness one wants something of beauty to relieve our pampered
eyes after so long dwelling on savage wastes: let us seek Tarentum
with its famous harbor, its mild winter climate, and its district, rich
enough to support even the great hordes of ancient time?. Let us now
334 SENECA
return to town : our ears have too long missed its shouts and noise : it
would be pleasant also to enjoy the sight of human bloodshed." Thus
one journey succeeds another, and one sight is changed for another*
As Lucretius says : —
"Thus every mortal from himself doth flee;"
but what does he gain by so doing if he does not escape from himself?
he follows himself and weighs himself down by his own burden-
some companionship. We must understand, therefore, that what we
suffer from is not the fault of the places but of ourselves: we are weak
when there is anything to be endured, and cannot support either labor
or pleasure, either one's own business or any one else's for long. This
has driven some men to death, because by frequently altering their pur-
pose they were always brought back to the same point, and had left
themselves no room for anything new. They had become sick of life
and of the world itself, and as all indulgences palled upon them thejj
began to ask themselves the question, "How long are we to go on doing
the same thing?"
III. You ask me what I think we had better make use of to help us
to support this ennui. "The best thing," as Athenodorus says, "is to
occupy oneself with business, with the management of affairs of state
and the duties of a citizen: for as some pass the day in exercising
themselves in the sun and in taking care of their bodily health, and ath-
letes find it most useful to spend the greater part of their time in feed-
ing up the muscles and strength to whose cultivation they have devoted
their lives ; so too for you who are training your mind to take part in
the struggles of political life, it is far more honorable to be thus at
work than to be idle. He whose object is to be of service to his country-
men and to all mortals, exercises himself and does good at the same
time when he is engrossed in business and is working to the best of his
ability both in the interests of the public and of private men. But,"
continues he, "because innocence is hardly safe among such furious
ambitions and so many men who turn one aside from the right path, and
it is always sure to meet with more hindrance than help, v/e ought to
withdraw ourselves from the forum and from public life, and a great
mind even in a private station can find room wherein to expand freely.
Confinement in dens restrains the springs of lions and wild creatures,
but this does not apply to human beings, who often effect the most im-
portant works in retirement. Let a man, however, withdraw himself
only in such a fashion that wherever he spends his leisure his wish* may
SENECA 335
still be to benefit individual men and mankind alike, both with his intel-
lect, his voice, and his advice. The man that docs good service to the
state is not only he who brings forward candidates for public office,
defends accused persons, and gives his vote on questions of peace and
war, but he who encourages young men in well-doing, who supplies
the present dearth of good teachers by instilling into their minds the
principles of virtue, who seizes and holds back those who are rushing
wildly in pursuit of riches and luxury, and, if he does nothing else, at
least checks their course — such a man does service to the public, though
in a private station. Which does the most good, he who decides be-
tween foreigners and citizens (as praetor peregrinus), or, as praetor
urbanus, pronounces sentence to the suitors in his court at his assist-
ant's dictation, or he who shows them what is meant by justice, filial
feeling, endurance, courage, contempt of death and knowledge of the
gods, and how much a man is helped by a good conscience? If then
you transfer to philosophy the time which you take away from the
public service, you will not be a deserter or have refused to perform
your proper task. A soldier is not merely one who stands in the ranks
and defends the right or the left wing of the army, but he also who
guards the gates — a service which, though less dangerous, is no sine-
cure— who keeps watch, and takes charge of the arsenal : though all
these are bloodless duties, yet they count as military service. As soon
as you have devoted yourself to philosophy, you will have overcome all
disgust at life : you will not wish for darkness because you are weary
of the light, nor will you be a trouble to yourself and useless to others :
you will acquire many friends, and all the best men will be attracted
towards you : for virtue, in however obscure a position, cannot be hid-
den, but gives signs of its presence : any one who is worthy will trace
it out by its footsteps : but if we give up all society, turn our backs upon
the whole human race, and live communing with ourselves alone, this
solitude without any interesting occupation will lead to a want of some-
thing to do : we shall begin to build up and to pull down, to dam out
the sea, to cause waters to flow through natural obstacles, and gener-
ally to make a bad disposal of the time which nature has given us to
spend: some of us use it grudgingly, others wastefully; some of us
spend it so that we can show a profit and loss account, others so that
they have no assets remaining : than which nothing can be more shame-
ful. Often a man who is very old in years has nothing beyond his age
by which he can prove that he has lived a long time."
IV. To me, my dearest Serenus, Athenodorus seems to have
330 SENECA
yielded too completely to the times, to have fled too soon : I will not
deny that sometimes one must retire, but one ought to retire slowly, at
a foot's pace, without losing one's ensigns or one's honor as a soldier :
those who make terms with arms in their hands are more respected by
their enemies and more safe in their hands. This is what I think ought
to be done by virtue and by one who practices virtue: if Fortune get
the upper hand and deprive him of the power of action, let him not
straightway turn his back to the enemy, throw away his arms, and run
away seeking for a hiding-place, as if there were any place whither For-
tune could not pursue him, but let him be more sparing in his acceptance
of public office, and after due deliberation discover some means by which
he can be of use to the state. He is not able to serve in the army ; then
let him become a candidate for civic honors : must he live in a private
station ? then let him be an advocate : is he condemned to keep silence ?
then let him help his countrymen with silent counsel. Is it dangerous
for him even to enter the forum? then let him prove himself a good
comrade, a faithful friend, a sober guest in people's houses, at public
shows, and at wine parties. Suppose that he has lost the status of a
citizen ; then let him exercise that of a man : our reason for magnanim-
ously refusing to confine ourselves within the walls of one city, for
having gone forth to enjoy intercourse with all lands and for professing
ourselves to be citizens of the world is that we may thus obtain a wider
theatre on which to display our virtue. Is the bench of judges closed
to you, are you forbidden to address the people from the hustings, or to
be a candidate at elections ? then turn your eyes away from Rome, and
themselves before you. Thus it is never possible for so many outlets
to be closed against your ambition that more will not remain open to it ;
but see whether the whole prohibition does not arise from your own
fault. You do not choose to direct the affairs of the state except as
consul or prytanis or meddix or sufes: what should we say if you
refused to serve in the army save as general or military tribune ? Even
though others may form the first line, and your lot may have placed you
among the veterans of the third, do your duty there with your voice,
encouragement, example, and spirit: even though a man's hands be cut
off, he may find means to help his side in a battle, if he stands his ground
and cheers on his comrades. Do something of that sort yourself: if
Fortune removes you from the front rank, stand your ground neverthe-
less and cheer on your comrades, and if somebody stops your mouth,
stand nevertheless and help your side in silence. The services of a
SENECA 337
pood citizen arc never thrown away : he docs good by being heard and
seen, by his expression, his gestures, his silent determination, and his
very walk. As some remedies benefit us by their smell as well as by
their taste and touch, so virtue even when concealed and at a distance
sheds usefulness around. Whether she moves at her ease and enjoys
her just rights, or can only appear abroad on sufferance and is forced to
shorten sail to the tempest, whether it be unemployed, silent, and pent
up in a narrow lodging, or openly displayed, in whatever guise she may
appear, she always does good. What? do you think that the example
of one who can rest nobly has no value? It is by far the best plan,
therefore, to mingle leisure with business, whenever chance impedi-
ments or the state of public affairs forbid one's leading an active life :
for one is never so cut off from all pursuits as to find no room left for
honorable action.
V. Could you anywhere find a more miserable city than that of
Athens when it was being torn to pieces by the thirty tyrants ? they slew
thirteen hundred citizens, all the best men, and did not leave off because
they had done so, but their cruelty became stimulated by exercise. In
the city which possessed that most reverend tribunal, the Court of the
Areopagus, which possessed a Senate, and a popular assembly which
was like a Senate, there met daily a wretched crew of butchers, and the
unhappy Senate House was crowded with tyrants. A state, in which
there were so many tyrants that they would have been enough to form
a bodyguard for one, might surely have rested from the struggle; it
seemed impossible for men's minds even to conceive hopes of recovering
their liberty, nor could they see any room for a remedy for such a mass
of evil : for whence could the unhappy state obtain all the Harmodiuses
it would need to slay so many tyrants ? Yet Socrates was in the midst
of the city, and consoled its mourning Fathers, encouraged those who
despaired of the republic, by his reproaches brought rich men, who
feared that their wealth would be their ruin, to a tardy repentance of
their avarice, and moved about as a great example to those who wished
to imitate him, because he walked a free man in the midst of thirty
masters. However, Athens herself put him to death in prison, and
Freedom herself could not endure the freedom of one who had treated
a whole band of tyrants with scorn : you may know, therefore, that even
in an oppressed state a wise man can find an opportunity for bringing
himself to the front, and that in a prosperous and flourishing one wanton
insolence, jealousy, and a thousand other cowardly vices bear sway.
We ought, therefore, to expand or contract ourselves according as the
338 SENECA
state presents itself to us, or as Fortune offers us opportunities : but in
any case we ought to move and not to become frozen still by fear: nay,
he is the best man who, though peril menaces him on every side and
arms and chains beset his path, nevertheless neither impairs nor conceals
his virtue: for to keep oneself safe does not mean to bury oneself. I
think that Curius Dentatus spoke truly when he said that he would
rather be dead than alive: the worst evil of all is to leave the ranks of
the living before one dies: yet it is your duty, if you happen to live in an
age when it is not easy to serve the state, to devote more time to leisure
and to literature. Thus, just as though you were making a perilous
voyage, you may from time to time put into harbor, and set yourself
free from public business without waiting for it to do so.
VI. We ought, however, first to examine our own selves, next the
business which we propose to transact, next those for whose sake or in
whose company we transact it.
It is, above all things, necessary to form a true estimate of oneself
because as a rule we think that we can do more than we are able: one
man is led too far through confidence in his eloquence, another de-
mands more from his estate than it can produce, another burdens
a weakly body with some toilsome duty. Some men are too shame-
faced for the conduct of public affairs, which require an unblushing
front: some men's obstinate pride renders them unfit for courts: some
can not control their anger, and break into unguarded language on the
slightest provocation: some can not rein in their wit or resist making
risky jokes: for all these men leisure is better than employment: a bold,
haughty and impatient nature ought to avoid anything that may lead
it to use a freedom of speech which will bring it to ruin. Next we
must form an estimate of the matter which we mean to deal with, and
compare our strength with the deed we are about to attempt; for the
bearer ought always to be more powerful than his load: indeed, loads
which are too heavy for their bearer must of necessity crush him: some
affairs also are not so important in themselves as they are prolific and
lead to much more business, which employments, as they involve us
in new and various forms of work ought to be refused. Neither should
you engage in anything from which you are not free to retreat: apply
yourself to something which you can finish, or at any rate can hope to
finish : you had better not meddle with those operations which grow in
importance, while they are being transacted, and which will not stop
where you intend them to stop.
VII. In all cases one should be careful in one's choice of»men,
SENECA 339
ami sec whether they be worthy of our bestowing a part of our Hfe
upon them, or whether we shall waste our own time and theirs also: fot
some even consider us to be in theirdebt because of our services to them.
Athenodorus said that "he would not so much as dine with a man who
would not be grateful to him for doing so" : meaning, I imagine, that
much less would he go to dinner with those who recompense the services
of their friends by their table, and regard courses of dishes as donatives,
as if they over-ate themselves to do honor to others. Take away from
these men their witnesses and spectators : they will take no pleasure in
solitary gluttony. You must decide whether your disposition is better
suited for vigorous action or for tranquil speculation and contemplation,
and you must adopt which ever the bent of your genius inclines you
for. Isocrates laid hands upon Ephorus and led him away from the
forum, thinking that he would be more usefully employed in compiling
chronicles; for no good is done by forcing one's mind to engage in
uncongenial work: it is vain to struggle as faithful and pleasant friend-
ship : what a blessing it is when there is one whose breast is ready to
receive all your secrets with safety, whose knowledge of your actions
you fear less than your own conscience, whose conversation removes
your anxieties, whose advice assists your plans, whose cheerfulness dis-
pels your gloom, whose very sight delights you ! We should choose from
our friends men who are, as far as possible, free from strong desires ;
for vices are contagious, and pass from a man to his neighbor, and
injure those who touch them. As, therefore, in times of pestilence we
have to be careful not to sit near people who are infected and in whom
the disease is raging, because by so doing, we shall run into danger and
catch the plague from their very breath ; so, too, in choosing our friends'
dispositions, we must take care to select those who are as far as may
be unspotted by the world ; for the way to breed disease is to mix what
is sound with what is rotten. Yet I do not advise you to follow after
or to draw to yourself no one except a wise man : for where will you find
him who for so many centuries we have sought in vain ? in the place
of the best possible man take him who is least bad. You would hardly
find any time that would have enabled you to make a happier choice
than if you could have sought for a good man from among the Platos
and Xenophons and the rest of the produce of the brood of Socrates,
or if you had been permitted to choose one from the age of Cato : an age
which bore many men worthy to be born in Cato's time (just as it also
bore many men worse than were ever known before, planners of the
blackest crimes : for it needed both classes in order to make Cato under-
340 SENECA
stood : it wanted both good men, that he might win their approbation,
and bad men, against whom he could prove his strength) : but at the
present day, when there is such a dearth of good men, you must be less
squeamish in your choice. Above all, however, avoid dismal men who
grumble at whatever happens, and find something to complain of in
everything. Though he may continue loyal and friendly towards you,
still one's peace of mind is destroyed by a comrade whose mind is soured
and who meets every incident with a groan.
VIII. Let us now pass on to the consideration of property, that
most fertile source of human sorrows : for if you compare all the other
ills from which we suffer — deaths, sicknesses, fears, regrets, endurance
of pains and labors — with those miseries which our money inflicts upon
us, the latter will far outweigh all the others. Reflect, then, how much
less a grief it is never to have had any money than to have lost it : we
shall thus understand that the less poverty has to lose, the less torment
it has with which to afflict us : for you are mistaken if you suppose that
the rich bear their losses with greater spirit than the poor : a wound
causes the same amount of pain to the greatest and the smallest body.
It was a neat saying of Bion's, "that it hurts bald men as much as hairy
men to have their hairs pulled out" : you may be assured that the same
thing is true of rich and poor people, that their suffering is equal : for
their money clings to both classes, and cannot be torn away without
their feeling it : yet it is more endurable, as I have said, and easier not
to gain property than to lose it, and therefore you will find that those
upon whom Fortune has never smiled are more cheerful than those
whom she has deserted. Diogenes, a man of infinite spirit, perceived
this, and made it impossible that anything should be taken from him.
Call this security from loss, poverty, want, necessity, or any contemptu-
ous name you please : I shall consider such a man to be happy, unless
you find me another who can lose nothing. If I am not mistaken, it is
a royal attribute among so many misers, sharpers, and robbers, to be the
one man who cannot be injured. If any one doubts the happiness of
Diogenes, he would doubt whether the position of the immortal gods
was one of sufficient happiness, because they have no farms or gardens,
no valuable estates let to strange tenants, and no large loans in the
money market. Are you not ashamed of yourself, you who gaze upon
riches with astonished admiration ? Look upon the universe : you will
see the gods quite bare of property, and possessing nothing though they
give everything. Do you think that this man who has stripped himself
of all fortuitous accessories is a pauper, or one like to the immortal
SBNBCA 341
gods? Do you call Demetrius, Pompeius's freedman, a happier man,
he who was not ashamed to be richer than Pompeius, who was daily
furnished with a list of the number of his slaves, as a general is with
that of his army, though he had long deserved that all his riches should
consist of a pair of underlings, and a roomier cell than the other slaves?
But Diogenes 's only slave ran away from him, and when he was pointed
out to Diogenes, he did not think him worth fetching back. "It is a
shame," he said, "that Manes should be able to live without Diogenes,
and that Diogenes should not be able to live without Manes." He
seems to me to have said, "Fortune, mind your own business : Diogenes
has nothing left that belongs to you. Did my slave run away? nay, he
went away from me as a free man." A household of slaves requires
food and clothing : the bellies of so many hungry creatures have to be
filled : we must buy raiment for them, we must watch their most thiev-
ish hands, and we must make use of the services of people who weep
and execrate us. How far happier is he who is indebted to no man for
anything except for what he can deprive himself of with the greatest
ease ! Since we, however, have not such strength of mind as this, we
ought at any rate to diminish the extent of our property, in order to be
less exposed to the assaults of fortune : those men whose bodies can be
within the shelter of their armour, are more fitted for war than those
whose huge size everywhere extends beyond it, and exposes them to
wounds : the best amount of property to have is that which is enough to
keep us from poverty, and which yet is not far removed from it.
IX. We shall be pleased with this measure of wealth if we have
previously taken pleasure in thrift, without which no riches are suffi-
cient, and with which none are insufficient, especially as the remedy is
always at hand, and poverty itself by calling in the aid of thrift can con-
vert itself into riches. Let us accustom ourselves to set aside mere
outward show, and to measure things by their uses, not by their
ornamental trappings: let our hunger be tamed by food, our thirst
quenched by drinking, our lust confined within needful bounds; let us
learn to use our limbs, and to arrange our dress and ways of life accord-
ing to what was approved by our ancestors, not in imitation of new-
fangled models: let us learn to increase our continence, to repress
luxury, to set bounds to our pride, to assuage our anger, to look upon
poverty without prejudice, to practice thrift, albeit many are ashamed
to do so, to apply cheap remedies to the wants of nature, to keep all
undisciplined hopes and aspirations as it were under lock and key, and
to make it our business to get our riches from ourselves and not from
342 SBNECA
Fortune. We never can so thoroughly defeat the vast diversity and
malignity of misfortune with which we are threatened as not to feel
the weight of many gusts if we offer a large spread of canvas to the
wind: we must draw our affairs into a small compass, to make the
darts of Fortune of no avail. For this reason, sometimes slight mishaps
have turned into remedies, and more serious disorders have been healed
by slighter ones. When the mind pays no attention to good advice, and
cannot be brought to its senses by milder measures, why should we
not think that its interests are being served by poverty, disgrace, or
financial ruin being applied to it? one evil is balanced by another.
Let us then teach ourselves to be able to dine without all Rome looking
on, to be the slaves of fewer slaves, to get clothes which fulfil their
original purpose, and to live in a smaller house. The inner curve is the
one to take, not only in running races and in the contests in the circus,
but also in the race of life ; even literary pursuits, the most becoming
thing for a gentlemen to spend money upon, are only justifiable as
long as they are kept within bounds. What is the use of possessing
numberless books and libraries, whose titles their owners can hardly
read through in a lifetime? A student is overwhelmed by such a
mass, not instructed, and it is much better to devote yourself to a few
writers than to skim through many. Forty thousand books were
burned at Alexandria : some would have praised this library as a most
noble memorial of royal wealth, like Titus Livius, who says that it was
"a splendid result of the taste and attentive care of kings." It had
nothing to do with taste or care, but was a piece of learned luxury, nay,
not even learend, since they amassed it, not for the sake of learning,
but to make a show, like many men who know less about letters than
a slave is expected to know, and who uses his books not to help him
in his studies but to ornament his dining-room. Let a* man, then,
obtain as many books as he wants, but none for show. "It is more
respectable," say you, "to spend one's money on such books than on
vases of Corinthian brass and paintings." Not so: everything that
is carried to excess is wrong. What excuses can you find for a man
who is eager to buy bookcases of ivory and citrus wood, to collect the
works of unknown or discredited authors, and who sits yawning amid
so many thousands of books, whose backs' titles please him more than
any other part of them ? Thus in the houses of the laziest of men you
will see the works of all the orators and historians stacked upon book-
shelves reaching right up to the ceiling. At the present day a library
has become as necessary an appendage to a house as a hot and* cold
SBNBCA 343
bath. I would excuse them straightway if they really were carried
away by an excessive zeal for literature ; but as it is, these costly works
of sacred genius, with all the illustrations that adorn them, are merely
bought for display and to serve as wall- furniture.
X. Suppose, however, that your life has become full of trouble,
and that without knowing what you were doing you have fallen into
some snare which either public or private Fortune has set for you, and
that you can neither untie it nor break it : then remember that fettered
men suffer much at first from the burdens and slogs upon their legs:
afterwards, when they have made up their minds not to fret themselves
about them, but to endure them, necessity teaches them to bear them
bravely, and habit to bear them easily. In every station of life you
will find amusements, relaxations, and enjoyments; that is, provided
you be willing to make light of evils rather than to hate them. Know-
ing to what sorrows we were born, there is nothing for which Nature
more deserves our thanks than for having invented habit as an alle-
viation of misfortune, which soon accustoms us to the severest evils.
No one could hold out against misfortune if it permanently exercised
the same force as at its first onset. We are all chained to Fortune;
some men's chain is loose and made of gold, that of others is tight
and of meaner metal: but what difference does this make? we are all
included in the same captivity and even those who have bound us are
bound themselves, unless you think that a chain on the left side is
lighter to bear: one man may be bound by public office, another by
wealth: some have to bear the weight of illustrious, some of humble
birth: some are subject to the commands of others, some only to their
own: some are kept in one place by being banished thither, others by
being elected to the priesthood. All life is slavery: let each man
therefore reconcile himself to his lot, complain of it as little as pos-
sible, and lay hold of whatever good lies within his reach. No con-
dition can be so wretched than an impartial mind can find no compen-
sations in it. Small sites, if ingeniously divided, may be made use of
for many different purposes, and arrangement will render ever so
narrow a room habitable. Call good sense to your aid against diffi-
culties: it is possible to soften what is harsh, to widen what is too
narrow, and to make heavy burdens press less severely upon one who
bears them skillfully. Moreover, we ought not to allow our desires to
wander far afield, but we must make them confine themselves to our
immediate neighborhood, since they will not endure to be altogether
locked up. We must leave alone things which either cannot come to
844 SENECA
pass or can only be effected with difficulty, and follow after such things
as are near at hand and within reach of our hopes, always remember-
ing that all things are equally unimportant, and that though they have
a different outward appearance, they are all alike empty within.
Neither let us envy those who are in high places: the heights which
look lofty to us are steep and rugged. Again, those whom unkind fate
has placed in critical situations will be safer if they show as little pride
in their proud position as may be, and do all they are able to bring
down their fortunes to the level of other men's. There are many who
must needs cling to their high pinnacle of power, because they can not
descend from it save by falling headlong, yet they assure us that their
greatest burden is being obliged to be burdensome to others, and that
they are nailed to their lofty post rather than raised to it : let them then,
by dispensing justice, clemency, and kindness with an open and liberal
hand, provide themselves with assistance to break their fall, and looking
forward to this, maintain their position more hopefully. Yet nothing
sets us free from these alternations of hope and fear so well as always
fixing some limit to our successes, and not allowing Fortune to choose
when to stop our career, but to halt of our own accord long before we
apparently need do so. By acting thus, certain desires will rouse up
our spirits, and yet being confined within bounds, will not lead us to
embark on vast and vague enterprises.
XI. These remarks of mine apply only to imperfect, common-
place, and unsound natures, not to the wise man, who needs not to
walk with timid and cautions gait : for he has such confidence in him-
self that he does not hesitate to go directly in the teeth of Fortune,
and never will give way to her. Nor indeed has he any reason for
fearing her, for he counts not only chattels, property, and high office,
but even his body, his eyes, his hands, and everything whose use makes
life dearer to us, nay, even his very self, to be things whose possession
is uncertain; he lives as though he had borrowed them, and is ready
to return them cheerfully whenever they are claimed. Yet he does
not hold himself cheap, because he knows that he is not his own, but
performs all his duties as carefully and prudently as a pious and scru-
pulous man would take care of property left in his charge as trustee.
When he is bidden to give them up, he will not complain of Fortune,
but will say, "I thank you for what I have had possession of : I have
managed your property so as largely to increase it, but since you order
me, I give it back to you and return it willingly and thankfully. If
you still wish me to own anything of yours, I will keep it for you:
SBNECA 3*3
if you have other views, I restore into your hands and make restitu-
tion of all my wrought and coined silver, my house and my household/'
Should Nature recall what she previously entrusted us with, let us
say to her also: Take back my spirit, which is better than when you
gave it me: I do not shuffle or hang back. Of my own free will I
am ready to return what you gave me before I could think: take me
away.' " What hardship can there be in returning to the place from
whence one came? a man cannot live well if he knows not how to die
well. We must, therefore, take away from this commodity its original
value, and count the breath of life as a cheap matter. "We dislike
gladiators," says Cicero, "if they are eager to save their lives by any
means whatever: but we look favorably upon them if they are openly
reckless of them." You may be sure that the same thing occurs with
us: we often die because we are afraid of death. Fortune, which
regards our lives as a show in the arena for her own enjoyment, says,
"Why should I spare you, base and cowardly creature that you are?
>ou will be pierced and hacked with all the more wounds because
you know not how to offer your throat to the knife: whereas you,
who receive. the stroke without drawing away your neck or putting
up your hands to stop it, shall both live longer and die more quickly."
He who fears death will never act as becomes a living man: but he
who knows that this fate was laid upon him as soon as he was con-
ceived will live according to it, and by this strength of mind will gain
this further advantage, that nothing can befall him unexpectedly, for
by looking forward to everything which can happen, as though it
would happen to him, he takes the sting out of all evils, which can
make no difference to those who expect it and are prepared to meet
it: evil only comes hard upon those who have lived without giving it
a thought and whose attention has been exclusively directed to hap-
piness. Disease, captivity, disaster, conflagration, are none of them
unexpected: I always knew with what disorderly company Nature had
associated me. The dead have often been wailed for in my neigh-
borhood: the torch and taper have often been borne past my door
before the bier of one who has died before his time: the crash of
falling buildings has often resounded by my side: night has snatched
away many of those with whom I have become intimate in the forum,
th<- Senate-house, and in society, and has sundered the hands which
were joined in friendship: ought I to be surprised if the dangers which
have always been circling around me, at last assail me? How large
a part of mankind never think of storms when about to set sail? I
V 3— ±:
346 SENECA
shall never be ashamed to quote a good saying because it comes from
a bad author. Publilius, who was a more powerful writer than any
of our other playwrights, whether comic or tragic, whenever he chose
to rise above farcical absurdities and speeches addressed to the gallery,
among many other verses too noble even for tragedy, let alone for
comedy, has this one : —
"What one has suffered may befal us all."
If a man takes this into his inmost heart and looks upon all the mis-
fortunes of other men, of which there is always a great plenty, in this
spirit, remembering that there is nothing to prevent their coming upon
him also, he will arm himself against them long before they attack
him. It is too late to school the mind to endurance of peril after peril
has come. "I did not think this would happen," and "Would you
ever have believed that this would have happened?" say you. But
why should it not? Where are the riches after which want, hunger,
and beggary do not follow? what office is there whose purple robe,
augur's staff, and patrician reins have not as their accompaniment rags
and banishment the brand of infamy, a thousand disgraces, and utter
reprobation? what kingdom is there for which ruin, trampling under
foot, a tyrant and a butcher are not ready at hand nor are these
matters divided by long periods of time, but there is but the space oi
an hour between sitting on the throne ourselves and clasping knees
of some one else as suppliants. Know then that every station of life
is transitory, and that what has ever happened to anybody may happen
to you also. You are wealthy; are you wealthier than Pompeius? Yet
when Gaius, his old relative and new host, opened Caesar's house to
him in order that he might close his own, he lacked both bread and
water: though he owned so many rivers which both rose and dis-
charged themselves within his dominions, yet he had to beg for drops
of water: he perished of hunger and thirst in the palace of his relative,
w/hile his heir was contracting for a public funeral for one who was
•r ;*1 want of food. You have filled public offices: were they either as
^eMmportant as unlocked for, or as all-embracing as those of Sejanus?
Yet on the day on which the Senate disgraced him, the people tore
him to pieces; the executioner could find no part left large enough
to drag to the Tiber, of one upon whom gods and men had showered
all that could be given to man. You are a king: I will not bid you
go to Croesus for an example, he who while yet alive saw his funeral
pile both lighted and extinguished, being made to outlive not only his
SENECA 341
kingdom but even his own death, nor to Jugurtha, whom the people
of Rome beheld as a captive within the year in which they had feared
him. We have seen Ptolemaeus, King of Africa, and Mithridates,
King of Armenia, under the charge of Gaius's guards: the former was
sent into exile, the latter chose it in order to make his exile more hon-
orable. Among such continual topsyturvy changes, unless you expect
that whatever can happen will happen to you, you give adversity power
against you, a power which can be destroyed by any one who looks at
it beforehand.
XII. The next point to these will be to take care that we do not
labor for what is vain, or labor in vain: that is to say, neither to desire
what we are not able to obtain, nor yet, having obtained our desire
too late, and after much toil to discover the folly of our wishes: in
other words, that our labor may not be without result, and that the
result may not be unworthy of our labor: for as a rule sadness arises
from one of these two things, either from want of success or from
being ashamed of having succeeded. We must limit the running to
and fro which most men practise, rambling about houses, theaters, and
market-places. They mind other men's business, and always seem as
though they themselves had something to do. If you ask one of them
as he comes out of his own door, "Whither are you going?" he will
answer, "By Hercules, I do not know: but I shall see some people and
do something." They wander purposelessly seeking for something
to do but what has causually fallen in their way. They move uselessly
and without any plan, just like ants crawling over bushes, which creep
up to the top and then down to the bottom again without gaining any-
thing. Many men spend their lives in exactly the same fashion, which
one may call a state of restless indolence. You would pity some of
them when you see them running as if their house was on fire: they
actually jostle all whom they meet, and hurry along themselves and
others with them, though all the while they are going to salute some
one who will not return their greeting, or to attend the funeral of some
one whom they did not know: they are going to hear the verdict on
one who often goes to law, or to see the wedding of one who often
gets married: they will follow a man's litter, and in some places will
even carry it: afterwards returning home weary with idleness, they
swear that they themselves do not know why they went out, or where
they have been, and on the following day they will wander through
the same round again. Let all your work, therefore, have some pur-
pose, and keep some object in view: these restless people are not made
348 SENECA
restless by labor, but arc driven out of their minds by mistaken ideas :
for even they do not put themselves in motion without any hope : they
are excited by the outward appearance of something, and their crazy
mind cannot see its futility. In the same 'way every one of those who
walk out to swell the crowd in the streets, is led round the city by
worthless and empty reasons ; the dawn drives him forth, although he
has nothing to do, and after he has pushed his way into many men's
doors, and saluted their nomenclators one after the other, and been
turned away from many others, he finds that the most difficult person
of all to find at home is himself. From this evil habit comes that
worst of all vices, talebearing and prying into public and private secrets,
and the knowledge of many things which it is neither safe to tell nor
safe to listen to.
XIII. It was, I imagine, following out this principle that Demo-
critus taught that "he who would live at peace must needs not do much
business either public or private," referring of course to unnecessary
business : for if there be any necessity for it we ought to transact not only
much but endless business, both public and private ; in cases, however,
where no solemn duty invites us to act, we had better keep ourselves
quiet: for he who does many things often puts himself in Fortune's
power, and it is safest not to tempt her often, but always to remember
her existence, and never to promise oneself anything on her security.
I will set sail unless anything happens to prevent me, I shall be praetor,
if nothing hinders me, my financial operations will succeed, unless any-
thing goes wrong with them. This is why we say that nothing befalls
the wise man which he did not expect — we do not make him exempt
from the chances of human life, but from its mistakes, nor does every-
thing happen to him as he wished it would, but as he thought it would :
now his first thought was that his purpose might meet with some resist-
ance, and the pain of disappointed wishes must affect a man's mind
less severely if he has not been at all events confident of success.
XIV. Moreover, we ought to cultivate an easy temper, and not
become over fond of the lot which fate has assigned to us, but transfer
ourselves to whatever other condition chance may lead us to, and fear
no alteration, either in our purposes or our position in life, provided
that we do not become subject to caprice, which of all vices is the most
hostile to repose: for obstinacy, from which Fortune often wrings
some concession, must needs be anxious and unhappy, but caprice, which
can never restrain itself, must be more so. Both of these qualities, both
that of altering nothing, and that of being dissatisfied with everything,
SENECA J4I
are enemies to repose. The mind ought in all cases to be called away
from the contemplation of external things to that of itself : let it confide
in itself, rejoice in itself, admire its own works ; avoid as far as may be
those of others, and devote itself to itself; let it not feel losses, and put
a good construction even upon misfortunes. Zeno, the chief of our
school, when he heard the news of a shipwreck, in which all his prop-
erty had been lost, remarked, "Fortune bids me follow philosophy in
lighter marching order." A tyrant threatened Theodorus with death,
and even with want of burial. "You are able to please yourself," he
answered, "my half pint of blood is in your power : for, as for burial,
what a fool you must be if you suppose that I care whether I rot above
ground or under it." Julius Kanus, a man of peculiar greatness, whom
even the fact of his having been born in this century does not prevent
our admiring, had a long dispute with Gaius, and when, as he was going
away that Phalaris of a man said to him, "That you may not delude
yourself with any foolish hopes, I have ordered you to be executed,"
he answered, "I thank you, most excellent prince." I am not sure what
he meant : for many ways of explaining his conduct occur to me. Did
he wish to be reproachful, and to show him how great his cruelty must
be if death became a kindness? or did he upbraid him with his accus-
tomed insanity? for even those whose children were put to death, and
whose goods were confiscated, used to thank him : or was it that he wil-
lingly received death, regarding it as freedom ? Whatever he meant, it
was a magnanimous answer. Some one may say, "After this Gaius
might have let him live." Kanus had no fear of this : the good faith
with which Gaius carried out such orders as these was well known.
Will you believe that he passed the ten intervening days before his
execution without the slightest despondency ? it is marvelous how that
man spoke and acted, and how peaceful he was. He was playing at
draughts when the centurion in charge of a number of those who were
going to be executed bade him join them : on the summons he counted
his men and said to his companion, "Mind you do not tell a lie after
my death, and say that you won ;" then, turning to the centurion, he
said, "You will bear me witness that I am one man ahead of him." Do
you think that Kanus played upon that draught-board ? nay, he played
with it His friends were sad at being about to lose so great a man :
"Why," asked he, "are you sorrowful ? you are enquiring whether our
souls are immortal, but I shall presently know." Nor did he up to the
very end cease his search after truth, and raised arguments upon the
subject of his own death. His own teacher of philosophy accompanied
350 SENECA
him, and they were not far from the hill on which the daily sacrifice to
Caesar, our god, was offered, when he said, "What are you thinking of
now, Kanus? or what are your ideas?" "I have decided," answered
Kanus, "at that most swiftly-passing moment of all to watch whether
the spirit will be conscious of the act of leaving the body." He prom-
ised, too, that if he made any discoveries, he would come round to his
friends and tell them what the condition of the souls of the departed
might be. Here was peace in the very -midst of the storm: here was a
soul worthy of eternal life, which used its own fate as a proof of truth,
which when at the last step of life experimented upon his fleeting
breath, and did not merely continue to learn until he died, but learned
something even from death itself. No man has carried the life of a
philosopher further. I will not hastily leave the subject of a great
man, and one who deserves to be spoken of with respect : I will hand
thee down to all posterity, thou most noble heart, chief among the many
victims of Gaius.
XV. Yet we gain nothing by getting rid of all personal causes of
sadness, for sometimes we are possessed by hatred of the human race.
When you reflect how rare simplicity is, how unknown innocence, how
seldom faith is kept, unless it be to our advantage, when you remember
such numbers of successful crimes, so many equally hateful losses and
gains of lust, and ambition so impatient even of its own natural limits
that it is willing to purchase distinction by baseness, the mind seems
as it were cast into darkness, and shadows rise before it as though the
virtues were all overthrown and we were no longer allowed to hope to
possess them or be benefited by their possession. We ought therefore
to bring ourselves into such a state of mind that all the vices of the
vulgar may not appear hateful to us, but merely ridiculous, and we
should imitate Democritus rather than Heraclitus. The latter of these,
whenever he appeared in public, used to weep, the former to laugh:
the one thought all human doings to be follies, the other thought them
to be miseries. We must take a higher view of all things, and bear
with them more easily : it better becomes a man to scoff at life than to
lament over it. Add to this that he who laughs at the human race
deserves better of it than he who mourns for it, for the former leaves
it some good hopes of improvement, while the latter stupidly weeps
over what he has given up all hopes of mending. He who after sur-
veying the universe cannot control his laughter shows, too, a greater
mind than he who cannot restrain his tears, because his mind is only
affected in the slightest possible degree, and he does not think that any
SENECA 351
part of all his apparatus is either important, or serious, or unhappy.
As for the several causes which render us happy or sorrowful, let every
one describe them for himself, and learn the truth of Dion's saying,
"That all the doings of men were very like what he began with, and that
there is nothing in their lives which is more holy or decent than their
conception." Yet it is better to accept public morals and human vices
calmly without bursting into either laughter or tears ; for to be hurt
by the sufferings of others is to be for ever miserable, while to enjoy
the sufferings of others is an inhuman pleasure, just as it is a useless
piece of humanity to weep and pull a long face because some one is
burying his son. In one's own misfortunes, also, one ought so to con-
duct oneself as to bestow upon them just as much sorrow as reason,
not as much as custom requires : for many shed tears in order to show
them, and whenever no one 'is looking at them their eyes are dry, but
they think it disgraceful not to weep when even,' one does so. So
deeply has this evil of being guided by the opinion of others taken root
in us, that even grief, the simplest of all emotions, begins to be coun-
terfeited.
XVI. There comes now a part of our subject which is wont with
good cause to make one sad and anxious : I mean when good men come
to bad ends ; when Socrates is forced to die in prison, Rutilius to live
in exile, Pompeius and Cicero to offer their necks to the swords of their
own followers, when the great Cato, that living image of virtue, falls
upon his sword and rips up both himself and the republic, one cannot
help being grieved that Fortune should bestow her gifts so unjustly:
what, too, can a good man hope to obtain when he sees how each of
them endured his fate, and if they endured it bravely, long in your
heart for courage as great as theirs ; if they died in a womanish and
cowardly manner, nothing was lost: either they deserved that you
should admire their courage, or else they did not deserve that you
should wish to imitate their cowardice : for what can be more shameful
than that the greatest men should die so bravely as to make people
cowards. Let us praise one who deserves such constant praises, and
say, "The braver you are the happier you are ! You have escaped from
prison : the gods have not thought you worthy of ill-fortune, but have
thought that fortune no longer deserved to have any power over you" :
but when any one shrinks back in the hour of death and looks longingly
at life, we must lay hands upon him. I will never weep for a man who
dies cheerfully, nor for one who dies weeping : the former wipes away
my tears, the latter by his tears makes himself unworthy that any should
362 SENECA
be shed for him. Shall I weep for Hercules because he was burned
alive, or for Regulus because he was pierced by so many nails, or for
Cato because he tore open his wounds a second time? All these men
discovered how at the cost of a small portion of time they might obtain
immortality, and by their deaths gained eternal life.
XVII. It also proves a fertile source of troubles if you take pains
to conceal your feelings and never show yourself to any one undis-
guised, but, as many men do, live an artificial life, in order to impose
upon others : for the constant watching of himself becomes a torment
to a man, and he dreads being caught doing something at variance with
his usual habits, and, indeed, we never can be at our ease if we imagine
that every one who looks at us is weighing our real value: for many
things occur which strip people of their disguise, however reluctantly
they may part with it, and even if all this trouble about oneself is suc-
cessful, still life is neither happy nor safe when one always has to wear
a mask. But what pleasure there is in that honest straight-forwardness
which is its own ornament, and which conceals no part of its character?
Yet even this life, which hides nothing from any one runs some risk of
being despised ; for there are people who disdain whatever they come
close to : but there is no danger of virtue's becoming contemptible when
she is brought near our eyes, and it is better to be scorned for one's
simplicity than to bear the burden of unceasing hypocrisy. Still, we
must observe moderation in this matter, for there is a great difference
between living simply and living slovenly. Moreover, we ought to
retire a great deal into ourselves : for association with persons unlike
ourselves upsets all that we had arranged, rouses the passions which
were at rest, and rubs into a sore any weak or imperfectly healed place
in our minds. Nevertheless we ought to mix up these two things, and
to pass our lives alternately in solicitude and among throngs of people ;
for the former will make us long for the society of mankind, the latter
for that of ourselves, and the one will counteract the other: solitude
will cure us when we are sick of crowds, and crowds will cure us when
we are sick of solitude. Neither ought we always to keep the mind
strained to the same pitch, but it ought sometimes to be relaxed by
amusement. Socrates did not blush to play with little boys, Cato used
to refresh his mind with wine after he had wearied it with application
to affairs of state, and Scipio would move his triumphal and soldierly
limbs to the sound of music, not with a feeble and halting gait, as is
the fashion now-a-days, when we sway in our very wa!k with more
than womanly weakness, but dancing as men were wont in
SENECA 363
the days of old on sportive and festal occasions, with manly bounds,
thinking it no harm to be seen so doing by their enemies. Men's minds
ought to have relaxation: they rise up better and more vigorous after
rest. We must not force crops from rich fields, for an unbroken course
of heavy crops will soon exhaust their fertility, and so also the liveliness
of our minds will be destroyed by unceasing labor, but they will recover
their strength after a short period of rest and relief: for continuous toil
produces a sort of numbness and sluggishness. Men would not be so
eager for this, if play and amusement did not possess natural attrac-
tions for them, although constant indulgence in them takes away all
gravity and all strength from the mind: for sleep, also, is necessary
for our refreshment, yet if you prolong it for days and nights together
it will become death. There is a great difference between slackening
your hold of a thing and letting it go. The founders of our laws ap-
pointed festivals, in order that men might be publicly encouraged to be
cheerful, and they thought it necessary to vary our labors with amuse-
ments, and, as I said before, some great men have been wont to give
themselves a certain number of holidays in every month, and some
divided every day into play-time and work-time. Thus, I remember
that great orator Asinius Pollio would not attend to any business after
the tenth hour: he would not even read letters after that time for fear
some new trouble should arise, but in those two hours used to get rid
of the weariness which he had contracted during the whole day. Some
rest in the middle of the day, and reserve some light occupation for the
afternoon. Our ancestors, too, forbade any new motion to be made in
the Senate after the tenth hour. Soldiers divide their watches, and
those who have just returned from active service are allowed to sleep
the whole night undisturbed. We must humor our minds and grant
them rest from time to time, which acts upon them like food, and
restores their strength. It does good also to take walks out of doors,
that our spirits may be raised and refreshed by the open air and fresh
breeze: sometimes we gain strength by driving in a carriage, by travel
by change of air, or by social meals and a more generous allowance of
wine: at times we ought to drink even to intoxication, not so as to
brown, but merely to dip ourselves in wine: for wine washes awaj
troubles and dislodges them from the depths of the mind, and acts as a
remedy to sorrow as it does to some diseases. The inventor of wine is
called Liber, not from the license which he gives to our tongues, but
because he liberates the mind from the bondage of cares, and eman-
cipates it, animates it, and renders it more daring in all that it attempts.
354 SENECA
Yet moderation is wholesome both in freedom and in wine. It is be-
lieved that Solon and Arcesilaus used to drink deep. Cato is reproached
with drunkenness : but whoever casts this in his teeth will find it easier
to turn his reproach into a commendation than to prove that Cato did
anything wrong: however, we ought not to do it often, for fear the
mind should contract evil habits, though it ought sometimes to be forced
into frolic and frankness, and to cast off dull sobriety for a while. If
we believe the Greek poet, "it is sometimes pleasant to be mad;" again,
Plato always knocked in vain at the door of poetry when he was sober;
or, if we trust Aristotle, no great genius has ever been without a touch
of insanity. The mind cannot use lofty language, above that of the
common herd, unless it be excited. When it has spurned aside the
commonplace environments of custom, and rises sublime, instinct with
sacred fire, then alone can it chant a song too grand for mortal lips : as
long as it continues to dwell within itself it cannot rise to any pitch of
splendor : it must break away from the beaten track, and lash itself to
frenzy, till it gnaws the curb and rushes away bearing up its rider to
heights whither it would fear to climb when alone.
I have now, my beloved Serenus, given you an account of what
things can preserve peace of mind, what things can restore it to us, what
can arrest the vices which secretly undermine it : yet be assured, that
none of these is strong enough to enable us to retain so fleeting a bless-
ing, unless we watch over our vacillating mind with intense and unre-
mitting care.
TRANSLATION OF AUBREY STEWART.
PHILO JUDAEUS
As is EVIDENT from the writings of Seneca, Epictetus and others,
philosophy in the west ceased to be purely speculative, and dealt with
moral and religious questions. This tendency toward the moral and
religious was strengthened by the spread of Jewish and Christian teach-
ings, together with the development of the Neo-Platonists toward
mysticism, and the consequent mingling of western and eastern thought.
Philo Judaeus lived in Alexandria, Egypt, from 20 B. C. to 40
A. D. He was a Jew in religion but a Greek in philosophy, and did
much to promote this fusion of thought. The first selection illustrates
alike Judaism, Greek philosophy, and allegorical mysticism. The
second selection describes the pre-Christian ascetics of Egypt. It is
important because it shows that asceticism was common in the deserts
of Egypt even before the Christian monks and thus by no means pecu-
liarly Christian.
THE CREATION OF THE WORLD
I. OF OTHER lawgivers, some have set forth what they consider
to be just and reasonable, in a naked and unadorned manner, while
others, investing their ideas with an abundance of amplification, have
sought to bewilder the people, by burying the truth under a heap of
fabulous inventions. But Moses, rejecting both of these methods, the
356 PHILO JUDAEUS
one as inconsiderate, careless, and unphilosophical, and the other as
mendacious and full of trickery, made the beginning of his laws entirely
beautiful, and in all respects admirable, neither at once declaring what
ought to be done or the contrary, nor (since it was necessary to mould
beforehand the dispositions of those who were to use his laws) invent-
ing fables himself or adopting those which had been invented by others.
And his exordium, as I have already said, is most admirable ; em-
bracing the creation of the world, under the idea that the law corre-
sponds to the world and the world to the law, and that a man who is
obedient to the law, being, by so doing, a citizen of the world, arranges
his actions with reference to the intention of nature, in harmony with
which the whole universal world is regulated. Accordingly no one,
whether poet or historian, could ever give expression in an adequate
manner to the beauty of his ideas respecting the creation of the world ;
for they surpass all the power of language, and amaze our hearing,
being too great and venerable to be adapted to the senses of any created
being. That, however, is not a reason for our yielding to indolence on
the subject, but rather from our affection for the Deity we ought to
endeavor to exert ourselves even beyond our powers in describing them :
not as having much, or indeed anything to say of our own, but instead
of much, just a little, such as it may be probable that human intellect
may attain to, when wholly occupied with a love of and desire for
wisdom.
For as the smallest seal receives imitations of things of colossal
magnitude when engraved upon it, so perchance in some instances the
exceeding beauty of the description of the creation of the world as
recorded in the Law, overshadowing with its brilliancy the souls of
those who happen to meet with it, will be delivered to a more concise
record after these facts have been first premised which it would be im-
proper to pass over in silence.
II. For some men, admiring the world itself rather than the Cre-
ator of the world, have represented it as existing without any maker,
and eternal ; and as impiously as falsely have represented God as exist-
ing in a state of complete inactivity, while it would have been right on
the other hand to marvel at the might of God as the creator and father
of all, and to admire the world in a degree not exceeding the bounds of
moderation.
But Moses, who had early reached the very summits of philosophy,
and who had learnt from the oracles of God the most numerous and
important of the principles of nature, was well aware that it is indis-
PHILO JUDABUS 357
pensable that in all existing things there must be an active cause, and a
passive subject ; and that the active cause is the intellect of the universe,
thoroughly unadulterated and thoroughly unmixed, superior to virtue
and superior to science, superior even to abstract good or abstract
beauty ; while the passive subject is something inanimate and incapable
of motion by any intrinsic power of its own, but having been set in
motion, and fashioned, and endowed with life by the intellect, became
transformed into that most perfect work, this world. And those who
describe it as being uncreated, do, without being aware of it, cut off the
most useful and necessary of all the qualities which tend to produce
piety, namely, providence : for reason proves that the father and crea-
tor has a care for that which has been created ; for a father is anxious
for the life of his children, and a workman aims at the duration of his
works, and employs every device imaginable to ward off everything
that is pernicious or injurious, and is desirous by every means in his
power to provide everything which is useful or profitable for them.
But with regard to that which has not been created, there is no feeling
of interest as if it were his own in the breast of him who has not cre-
ated it.
It is then a pernicious doctrine, and one for which no one should
contend, to establish a system in this world, such as anarchy is in a
city, so that it should have no superintendent, or regulator, or judge,
by whom everything must be managed and governed.
But the great Moses, thinking that a thing which has not been
uncreated is as alien as possible from that which is visible before our
eyes (for everything which is the subject of our senses exists in birth
and in changes, and is not always in the same condition), has attributed
eternity to that which is invisible and discerned only by our intellect
as a kinsman and a brother, while of that which is the object of our
external senses he had predicated generation as an appropriate descrip-
tion. Since, then, this world is visible and the object of our external
senses, it follows of necessity that it must have been created ; on which
account it was not without a wise purpose that he recorded its creation,
giving a very venerable account of God.
III. And he says that the world was made in six days, not because
the Creator stood in need of a length of time (for it is natural that God
should do everything at once, not merely by uttering a command, but
by even thinking of it) ; but because the things created required ar-
rangement ; and number is akin to arrangement ; and, of all numbers,
six is, by the laws of nature, the most productive : for of all the num-
338 PHILO JUDAEUS
bers, from the unit upwards, it is the first perfect one, being made equal
to its parts, and being made complete by them ; the number three being
half of it, and the number two a third of it, and the unit a sixth of it,
and, so to say, it is formed so as to be both male and female, and is
made up of the power of both natures ; for in existing things the odd
number is the male, and the even number is the female ; accordingly,
of odd numbers the first is the number three, and of even numbers the
first is two, and the two numbers multiplied together make six. It was
fitting, therefore, that the world, being the most perfect of created
things, should be made according to the perfect number, namely, six :
and, as it was to have in it the causes of both, which arise from com-
bination, that it should be formed according to a mixed number, the
first combination of odd and even numbers, since it was to embrace the
character both of the male who sows the seed, and of the female who
receives it. And he allotted each of the six days to one of the portions
of the whole, taking out the first day, which he does not even call the
first day, that it may not be numbered with the others, but entitling it
one, he names it rightly, perceiving in it, and ascribing to it the nature
and appellation of the unit.
IV. We must mention as much as we can of the matters con-
tained in his account, since to enumerate them all is impossible ; for he
embraces that beautiful world which is perceptible only by the intellect,
as the account of the first day will show : for God, apprehending before-
hand, as a God must do, that there could not exist a good imitation with-
out a good model, and that the things perceptible to the external senses
nothing could be faultless which was not fashioned with reference to
some archetypal idea conceived by the intellect, when he had determined
to create this visible world, previously formed that one which is percept-
ible only by the intellect, in order that so using an incorporeal model
formed as far as possible on the image of God, he might then make this
corporeal world, a younger likeness of the elder creation, which should
embrace as many different genera perceptible to the external senses,
as the other world contains of those which are visible only to the
intellect.
But that world which consists of ideas, it were impious in any
degree to attempt to describe or even to imagine : but how it was cre-
ated, we shall know if we take for our guide a certain image of the
things which exist among us.
When any city is founded through the exceeding ambition of some
king or leader who lays claim to absolute authority, and is at the same
PHILO JUDAEUS :
time a man of brilliant imagination, eager to display his good fortune,
then it happens at times that sonic man coming up who, from his educa-
tion, is skillful in architecture, and he, seeing the advantageous char-
acter and beauty of the situation, first of all sketches out in his own
mind nearly all the parts of the city which is about to be completed —
the temples, the gymnasia, the prytanea, the markets, the harbor, the
docks, the streets, the arrangement of the walls, the situations of the
dwelling houses, and of the public and other buildings. Then, having
received in his own mind, as on a waxen tablet, the form of each build-
ing, he carries in his heart the image of a city, perceptible as yet only by
the intellect, the images of which he stirs up in memory which is innate
in him, and, still further, engraving them in his mind like a good work-
man, keeping his eyes fixed on his model, he begins to raise the city of
stones and wood, making the corporeal substances to resemble each of
the incorporeal ideas. Now we must form a somewhat similar opinion
of God, who, having determined to found a mighty state, first of all con-
ceived its form in his mind, according to which form he made a world
perceptible only by the intellect, and then completed one -visible to the
external senses, using the first one as a model.
V. As therefore the city, when previously shadowed out in the
mind of the man of architectural skill had no external place, but was
stamped solely in the mind of the workman, so in the same manner
neither can the world which existed in ideas have had any other local
position except the divine reason which made them; for what other
place could there be for his powers which should be able to receive and
contain, I do not say all, but even any single one of them whatever, in
its simple form ? And the power and faculty which could be capable of
creating the world, has for its origin that good which is founded on
truth ; for if any one were desirous to investigate the cause on account
of which this universe was created, I think that he would come to no
erroneous conclusion if he were to say as one of the ancients did say :
"That the Father and Creator was good ; on which account he did not
grudge the substance a share of his own excellent nature, since it had
nothing good in itself, but was able to become everything." For the
substance was of itself destitute of arrangement, of equality, of anima-
tion, of distinctive character, and full of all disorder and confusion;
and it received a change and transformation to what is opposite to this
condition, and most excellent, being invested with order, quality, anima-
tion, resemblance, identity, arrangement, harmony, and everything
which belongs to the more excellent idea.
860 PHILO JUDAEUS
VI. And God, not being urged on by any prompter (for who
else could there have been to prompt him ?) but guided by his own sole
will, decided that it was fitting to benefit with unlimited and abundant
favors a nature which, without the divine gift, was unable of itself to
partake of any good thing ; but he benefits it, not according to the great-
ness of his own graces, for they are illimitable and eternal, but accord-
ing to the power of that which is benefited to receive his graces. For
the capacity of that which is created to receive benefits does not corre-
spond to the natural power of God to confer them; since his powers
are infinitely greater, and the thing created being not sufficiently power-
ful to receive all their greatness would have sunk under it, if he had
nor measured his bounty, allotting to each, in due proportion, that which
was poured upon it. And if any one were to desire to use more undis-
guised terms, he would not call the world, which is perceptible only to
the intellect, any thing else but the reason of God, already occupied in
the creation of the world ; for neither is a city, while only perceptible
to the intellect, anything else but the reason of the architect, who is al-
ready designing to build one perceptible to the external senses, on the
model of that which is so only to the intellect — this is the doctrine of
Moses, not mine. Accordingly he, when recording the creation of man,
in words which follow, asserts expressly, that he was made' in the
image of God — and if the image be a part of the image, then manifestly
so is the entire form, namely, the whole of this world perceptible by the
external senses, which is a greater imitation of the divine image than
the human form is. It is manifest also, that the archetypal seal, which
we call that world which is perceptible only to the intellect, must itself
be the archetypal model, the idea of ideas, the Reason of God.
VII. Moses says also, "In the beginning God created the heaven
and the earth :" taking the beginning to be, not as some men think, that
which is according to time ; for before the world time had no existence,
but was created either simultaneously with it, or after it ; for since time
is the interval of the motion of the heavens, there could not have been
any such thing as motion before there was anything which could be
moved ; but it follows of necessity that it received existence subsequently
or simultaneously. It therefore follows also of necessity, that time was
created either at the same moment with the world, or later than it — and
to venture to assert that it is older than the world is absolutely incon-
sistent with philosophy. But if the beginning spoken of by Moses is
not to be looked upon as spoken of according to time, then it may be
natural that to suppose that it is the beginning according to number
PHILO JUDAEUS 381
that is indicated ; so that, "In the beginning he created,'* is equivalent
to "first of all he created the heaven ;" for it is natural in reality that
that should have been the first object created, being both the best of all
create dthings, and also made of the purest substance, because it was
destined to be the most holy abode of the visible gods who are percep-
tible by the external senses; for if the Creator had made everything at
the same moment, still those things which were created in beauty would
no less have had a regular arrangement, for there is no such thing as
beauty in disorder. But order is a due consequence and connection of
things precedent and subsequent, if not in the completion of a work, at
all events in the intention of the maker; for it is owing to order that
they become accurately defined and stationary, and free from confusion.
In the first place therefore, from the model of the world, precepti-
ble only by intellect, the Creator made an incorporeal heaven, and an in-
visible earth, and the form of air and of empty space: the former of
which he called darkness, because the air is black by nature; and the
other he called the abyss, for empty space is very deep and yawn-
inging with immense width. Then he created the incorporeal sub-
stance of water and of air, and above all he spread light, being the
seventh thing made ; and this again was incorporeal, and a model of the
sun, perceptible only to intellect, and of all the lightgiving stars, which
are destined to stand together in heaven.
VIII. And air and light he considered worthy of the pre-emin-
ence. For the one he called the breath of God, because it is air, which is
the most life-giving of things, and of life the causer is God ; and the
other he called light, because it is surpassingly beautiful : for that which
is perceptible only by the intellect is as far more brilliant and splen-
did than that which is seen, as I conceive, the sun is than darkness, or
day than night, or the intellect than any other of the outward senses by
which men judge (inasmuch as it is the guide of the entire soul), or the
eyes than any other part of the body. And the invisible divine reason,
perceptible only by intellect, he calls the image of God. And the image
of this image is that light, perceptible only by the intellect, which is the
image of the divine reason, which has explained its generation. And it
is a star above the heavens, the source of those stars which are per-
ceptible by the external senses, and if any one were to call it universal
light, he would not be very wrong; since from that the sun and the
moon, and all the other planets and fixed stars derive their due light,
in proportion as each has power given it ; that unmingled and pure light
being obscured when it begins to change, according to the change from
V 3-23
362 PHILO JUDAEUS
that which is perceptible by the external senses; for none of those
things which are perceptible to the external senses is pure.
IX. Moses is right also when he says, that "darkness was over
the face of the abyss." For the air is in a manner spread above the
empty space, since having mounted up it entirely fills all that open, and
desolate, and empty place, which reaches down to us from the regions
below the moon. And after the shining forth of that light, perceptible
only to the intellect, which existed before the sun, then its adversary
darkness yielded, as God put a wall between them and separated them,
well knowing their opposite characters, and the enmity existing between
their natures. In order, therefore, that they might not war against
one another from being continually brought in contact, so that war
would prevail instead of peace, God, turning want of order into order,
did not only separate light and darkness, but did also place boundaries
in the middle of the space between the two, by which he separated the
extremities of each. For if they had approximated they must have pro-
duced confusion, preparing for the contest, for the supremacy, with
great and unextinguishable rivalry, if boundaries established between
them had not separated them and prevented them from dashing to-
gether, and these boundaries are evening and morning; the one of
which heralds in the good tidings that the sun is about to rise, gently
dissipating the darkness : and evening comes on as the sun sets, receiv-
ing gently the collective approach of darkness. And these, I mean
morning and evening, must be placed in the class of incorporeal things,
perceptible only by the intellect ; for there is absolutely nothing in them
which is perceptible by the external senses, but they are entirely ideas,
and measures and forms, and seals, incorporeal as far as regards the
generation of other bodies. But when light came, and darkness re-
treated and yielded to it and boundaries were set in the space between
the two, namely, evening and morning, then of necessity the measure
of time was immediately perfected, which also the Creator called "day ;"
and it is spoken of thus, on account of the single nature of the world
perceptible only by the intellect, which has a single nature.
X. The incorporeal world then was already completed, having its
seat in the Divine Reason : and the world, perceptible by the external
senses, was made on the model of it ; and the first portion of it, being also
the most excellent of all made by the Creator, was the heaven, which he
truly called the firmament, as being corporeal ; for the body is by nature
firm, inasmuch as it is divisible into three parts ; and what other idea of
solidity and of body can there be, except that it is something which may
PHILO JUDABUS 863
be measured in every direction ? Therefore, he very naturally contrast-
ing that which was perceptible to the external senses, and corporeal with
that which was perceptible only by the intellect and incorporeal, called
this the firmament. Immediately afterwards he, with great propriety
and entire correctness, called it the heaven, either because it was already
the boundary of everything, or because it was the first of all visible
things which was created ; and after its second rising he called the time
day, referring the entire space and measure of a day to the heaven, on
account of its dignity and honor among the things perceptible to the ex-
ternal senses.
XI. And after this, as the whole body of water in existence was
spread over all the earth, and had penetrated through all its parts as if
it were a sponge which had imbibed moisture, so that the earth was only
swampy land and deep mud, both the elements of earth and water being
mixed up and combined together, like one confused mass into one undis-
tinguishable and shapeless nature, God ordained that all the water which
was salt, and destined to be a cause of barrenness to seeds and tree*
should be gathered together, flowing forth out out of all the holes of the
entire earth ; and he commanded dry land to appear, that liquid which
had any sweetness in it being left in it to secure its durability. For this
sweet liquid, in due proportions, is as a sort of glue for the different
substances, preventing the earth from being utterly dried up, and so
becoming unproductive and barren, and causing it, like a mother, to
furnish not only one kind of nourishment, namely meat, but both sorts
at once, so as to supply its offspring with both meat and drink : where-
fore he filled it with veins, resembling breasts, which, being provided
with openings, were destined to pour forth springs and rivers. And in
the same way he extended the invisible irrigations of dew pervading
every portion of arable and deep-soiled land, to contribute to the most
liberal and plenteous supply of fruits. Having arranged these things,
he gave them names, calling the dry, "land," and the water which was
separated from it, he called "sea."
364
PRE-CHRISTIAN ASCETICS
HAVING MENTIONED the Essenes, who in all respects selected for
their admiration and for their especial adoption the practical course of
life, and who excel in all, or what perhaps may be a less unpopular and
invidious thing to say, in most of its parts, I will now proceed, in the reg-
ular order of my subject, to speak of those who have embraced the spec-
ulative life, and I will say what appears to me to be desirable to be said
on the subject, not drawing any fictitious statements from my own head
for the sake of improving the appearance of that side of the question
which nearly all poets and essayists are much accustomed to do in the
scarcity of good actions to extol, but with the greatest simplicity adher-
ing strictly to the truth itself, to which I know well that even the most
eloquent men do not keep close in their speeches.
Nevertheless we must make the endeavor and labor to attain to this
virtue; for it is not right that the greatness of the virtue of the men
should be a cause of silence to those who do not think it right that any-
thing which is creditable should be suppressed in silence ; but the delib-
erate intention of the philosopher is at once displayed from the appella-
tion given to them : for with strict regard to etymology, they are called
therapeutae and therapeutrides, either because they profess an art of
medicine more excellent than that in general use in cities ( for that only
heals bodies, but the other heals souls which are under the mastery of
terrible and almost incurable diseases, which pleasures and appetites,
fears and griefs, and covetousness, and follies, and injustice, and all the
rest of the innumerable multitude of other passions and vices, have in-
flicted upon them), or else because they have been instructed by nature
and the sacred laws to serve the living God, who is superior to the good,
and more simple than the one, and more ancient than the unity with
whom, however, who is there of those who profess piety that we can
possibly compare? Can we compare those who honor the elements,
earth, water, air, and fire ? to whom different nations have given names,
calling fire Hephzestus, I imagine because of its kindling, and the air
Hera, I imagine because of its being raised up, and raised aloft to a
great height, and water Poseidon, probably because of its being drink-
PHTLO JUDAEUS 365
able, and the earth Dcmeter. because it appears to be the mother of all
plants and of all animals.
II. But since these men infect not only their fellow countrymen,
but all that come near them with folly, let them remain uncovered,
being mutilated in the most indispensable of all the outward senses,
namely, sight. I am speaking here, not of the sight of the body, but of
that of the soul, by which alone truth and falsehood are distinguished
from one another. But the therapeutic sect of mankind, being continu-
ally taught to see without interruption, may well aim at obtaining a sight
of the living God, and may pass by the sun, which is visible to the out-
ward sense, and never leave this order which conducts to perfect happi-
ness. But they who apply themselves to this kind of worship, not be-
cause they are influenced to do so by custom, nor by the advice or recom-
mendation of any particular persons, but because they are carried away
by a certain heavenly love, give way to enthusiasm, behaving like so
many revellers in bachanalian or corybantian mysteries, until they see
the object which they have been earnestly desiring.
Then, because of their anxious desire for an immortal and blessed
existence, thinking that their mortal life has already come to an end,
they leave their possessions to their sons or daughters, or perhaps to
other relations, giving them up their inheritance with willing cheerful-
ness : and those who know no relations give their property to their com-
panions or friends, for it followed of necessity that those who have
acquired the wealth which sees, as if ready prepared for them, should be
willing to surrender that wealth which is blind to those who themselves
also are still blind in their minds.
When, therefore, men abandon their property without being influ-
enced by any predominant attraction, they flee without even turning
their heads back again, deserting their brethren, their children, their
wives, their parents, their numerous families, their affectionate bands of
companions, their native lands in which they have been born and brought
up, though long familiarity is a most attractive bond, and one very well
able to allure any one. And they depart, not to another city as those do
who entreat to be purchased from those who at present possess them,
being either unfortunate or else worthless servants, and as such seeking
a change of masters rather than endeavoring to procure freedom (for
every city, even that which is under the happiest laws, is full of inde-
scribable tumults, and disorders, and calamities, which no one would
submit to who had been even for a moment under the influence of wis-
dom), but they take up their abode outside of walls, or gardens, or soli-
866 PHILO JUDAEUS
tary lands, seeking for a desert place, not because of any ill-natured mis-
anthropy to which they have learned to devote themselves, but because
of the associations with people of wholly dissimilar dispositions to which
they would otherwise be compelled, and which they know to be unprofit-
able and mischievous.
III. Now this class of persons may be met with in many places, for
it was fitting that both Greece and the country of the barbarians should
partake of whatever is perfectly good ; and there is the greatest number
of such men in Egypt, in every one of the districts, or nomi, as they are
called, and especially around Alexandria; and from all quarters those
•who are the best of these therapeutse proceed on their pilgrimage to some
most suitable place as if it were their country, which is beyond the
Mareotic lake, lying in a somewhat level plain a little raised above the
rest, being suitable for their purpose by reason of its safety and also of
the fine temperature of the air.
For the houses built in the fields and the villages which surround
it on all sides give it safety ; and the admirable temperature of the air
proceeds from the continual breezes which come from the lake which
falls into the sea, and also from the sea itself in the neighborhood, the
breezes from the sea being light, and those which proceed from the lake
which falls into the sea being heavy, the mixture of which produces a
most healthy atmosphere.
But the houses of these men thus congregated together are very
plain, just giving shelter in respect of the two things most important to
be provided against, the heat of the sun, and the cold from the open air ;
and they did not live near to one another as men do in cities, for imme-
diate neighborhood to others would be a troublesome and unpleasant
thing to men who have conceived an admiration for, and have deter-
mined to devote themselves to, solitude ; and, on the other hand, they did
not live very far from one another on account of the fellowship which
they desire to cultivate, and because of the desirableness of being able
to assist one another if they should be attacked by robbers.
And in every house there is a sacred shrine which is called the holy
place, and the monastery in which they retire by themselves and perform
all the mysteries of a holy life, bringing in nothing, neither meat, nor
drink, nor anything else which is indispensable towards supplying the
necessities of the body, but studying in that place the laws and the sacred
oracles of God enunciated by the holy prophets, and hymns, and psalms,
and all kinds of other things by reason of which knowledge and piety
are increased and brought to perfection.
PHILO JUDAEU9 367
Therefore they always retain an imperishable recollection of God,
so that not even in their dreams is any other subject ever presented to
their eyes except the beauty of the divine virtues and of the divine
powers. Therefore many persons speak in their sleep, divulging and
publishing the celebrated doctrines of the sacred philosophy. And they
are accustomed to pray twice a day, at morning and at evening; when
the sun is rising entreating God that the happiness of the coming day
may be real happiness, so that their minds may be filled with heavenly
light, and when the sun is setting they pray that their soul, being en-
tirely lightened and relieved of the burden of the outward senses, and
of the appropriate object of these outward senses, may be able to trace
out trust existing in its own consistory and council chamber. And the
interval between morning and evening is by them devoted wholly to
meditation on and to practice virtue, for they take up the sacred scrip-
tures and philosophy concerning them, investigating the allegories as
symbols of some secret meaning of nature, intended to be conveyed in
those figurative expressions.
They have also writings of ancient men, who having been the
founders of one sect or another, have left behind them many memorials
of the allegorical system of writing and explanation, whom they take as
a kind of model, and imitate the general fashion of their sect ; so that
they do not occupy themselves solely in contemplation, but they likewise
compose psalms and hymns to God in every kind of metre and melody
imaginable, which they of necessity arrange in more dignified rhythm.
Therefore, during six days, each of these indivdiuals, retiring into soli-
tude by himself, philosophises by himself in one of the places called
monasteries, never going outside the threshold of the outer court, and
indeed never even looking out.
But on the seventh day they all come together as if to meet in a
sacred assembly, and they sit down in order according to their ages with
all becoming gravity, keeping their hands inside their garments, having
their right hand between their chest and their dress, and the left hand
down by their side, close to their flank ; and then the eldest of them who
has the most profound learning in their doctrines comes forward and
speaks with steadfast look and with steadfast voice, with great powers
of reasoning, and great prudence, not making an exhibition of his ora-
torical powers like the rhetoricians of old, or the sophists of the present
day, but investigating with great pains, and explaining with minute
accuracy the precise meaning of the laws, which sits, not indeed at the
tips of their ears, but penetrates through their hearing into the soul, and
368 PHILO JUDAEUS
remains there lastingly ; and all the rest listen in silence to the praises
which he bestows upon the law, showing their assent only by nods of the
head, or the eager look of the eyes.
And this common holy place to which they all come together on the
seventh day is a twofold circuit, being separated partly into the apart-
ment of the men, and partly into a chamber for the women, for women
also, in accordance with the usual fashion there, form a part of the audi-
ence, having the same feelings of admiration as the men, and having
adopted the same sect with equal deliberation and decision ; and the wall
which is between the houses rises from the ground three or four cubits
upwards, like a battlement, and the upper portion rises upwards to the
roof without any opening, on two accounts ; first of all, in order that the
modesty which is so becoming to the female sex may be preserved, and
secondly, that the women may be easily able to comprehend what is said,
being seated within earshot, since there is then nothing which can pos-
sibly intercept the voice of him who is speaking.
IV. And these expounders of the law, having first of all laid down
temperance as a sort of foundation for the soul to rest upon, proceed to
build up other virtues on this foundation, and no one of them may take
any meat or drink before the setting of the sun, since they judge that the
work of philosophising is one which is worthy of the light, but that the
care of the necessities of the body is suitable only to darkness, on which
account they appropriate the day to the one occupation, and a brief por-
tion of the night to the other ; and some men, in whom there is implanted
a more fervent desire of knowledge, can endure to cherish a recollection
of their food for three days without even tasting it, and some men are
so delighted, and enjoy themselves so exceedingly when regaled by wis-
dom which supplies them with her doctrines in all possible wealth and
abundance, that they can even hold out twice as great a length of time,
and will scarcely at the end of six days taste even necessary food, being
accustomed, as they say that grasshoppers are, to feed on air, their song
as I imagine, making their scarcity tolerable to them.
And they, looking upon the seventh day as one of perfect holiness
and a most complete festival, have thought it worthy of a most especial
honor, and on it, after taking due care of their soul, they tend their '
bodies also, giving them, just as they do to their cattle, a complete rest
from their continual labors ; and they eat nothing of a costly character,
but plain bread and a seasoning of salt, which the more luxurious of
them do further season with hyssop ; and their drink is water from the
spring ; for they oppose those feelings which nature has made mistresses
PHILO JUDAEUS M
of the human race, namely, hunger and thirst, giving them nothing to
flatter or humor them, but only such useful things as it is not possible
to exist without. On this account they eat only so far as not to be
hungry, and they drink just enough to escape from thirst, avoiding all
satiety, as an enemy of and a plotter against both soul and body.
And there are two kinds of covering, one raiment and the other a
house : we have already spoken of their houses, that they are not decor-
ated with any ornaments, but run up in a hurry, being only made to
answer such purposes as are absolutely necessary; and in like manner
their raiment is of the most ordinary description, just stout enough to
ward off cold and heat, being a cloak of some shaggy hide for winter,
and a thin mantle or linen shawl in the summer ; for in short they prac-
tice entire simplicity, looking upon falsehood as the foundation of pride,
but truth is the origin of simplicity, and upon truth and falsehood as
standing in the light of fountains, for from falsehood proceeds every
variety of evil and wickedness, and from truth there flows every imagin-
able abundance of good things both human and divine.
TRANSLATION OF C. D. YONGE.
370
PLUTARCH
PLUTARCH was born of a wealthy family in Boeotia at Chaeronea
about 50 B. C. Part of his life seems to have been spent at Rome, but
he seems to have returned to Greece and died there about 120 B. C.
But little further is known of his life.
He was one of the greatest biographers the world has ever known,
while his moral essays show wide learning and considerable depth of
contemplation. In the second volume we included his description of
Spartan customs, while we give below his essay on education.
THE TRAINING OF CHILDREN
1. THE COURSE that ought to be taken for the training of free-
born children, and the means whereby their manners may be rendered
virtuous, will, with the reader's leave, be the subject of our present dis-
quisition.
2. In the management of which, perhaps it may be expedient to
take our rise from their very procreation. I would therefore, in the
^rst place, advise those who desire to become the parents of famous and
eminent children, that they keep not company with all women that they
light on ; I mean such as harlots, or concubines. For such children as
are blemished in their birth, either by the father's or the mother's side,
are liable to be pursued, as long as they live, with the indeliable infamy
PLUTARCH 871
of their base extraction, as that which offers a ready occasion to all that
desire to take hold of it of reproaching and disgracing them therewith.
Misfortune on that family's entailed,
Whose reputation in its founder failed.
Wherefore, since to be well born gives men a good stock of confi-
dence, the consideration thereof ought to be of no small value to such as
desire to leave behind them a lawful issue. For the spirits of men who
are alloyed and counterfeit in their birth are naturally enfeebled and
debased ; as rightly said the poet again, —
A bold and daring spirit is oft daunted,
When with the guilt of parents' crimes 'tis haunted.
So, on the contrary, a certain loftiness and natural gallantry of
spirit is wont to fill the breasts of those who are born of illustrious par-
ents. Of which Diaphantus, the young son of Themistocles, is a notable
instance ; for he is reported to have made his boast often and in many
companies, that whatsoever pleased him pleased also all Athens; for
whatever he liked, his mother liked; and whatever his mother liked,
Themistocles liked ; and whatever Themistocles liked, all the Athenians
liked. Wherefore it was gallantly done of the Lacedaemonian States,
when they laid a round fine on their king Archidamus for marrying a
little woman, giving this reason for their so doing: that he meant to
beget for them not kings, but kinglings.
3. The advice which I am, in the next place, about to give, is, in-
deed, no other than what hath been given by those who have undertaken
this argument before me. You will ask me what is that ? It is this :
that no man keep company with his wife for issue's sake but when he
is sober, having drunk either no wine, or at least not such a quantity as
to distemper him ; for they usually prove wine-bibbers and drunkards,
whose parents begot them when they were drunk. Wherefore Diogenes
said to a stripling somewhat crack-brained and half-witted: Surely,
young man, thy father begot thee when he was drunk. Let this suffice
to be spoken concerning the procreation of children; and let us pass
thence to their education.
4. And here, to speak summarily, what we are wont to say of arts
and sciences may be said also concerning virtue: that there is a concur-
rence of three things requisite to the completing them in practice —
which are nature, reason and use. Now by reason here I would be un-
372 PLUTARCH
derstood to mean learning ; and by use, exercise. Now the principles
come from instruction, the practice comes from exercise, and perfection
from all three combined. And accordingly as either of the three is de-
ficient, virtue must needs be defective. For if virtue is not improved
by instruction, it is blind: if instruction is not assisted by nature, it is
maimed ; and if exercise fail of the assistance of both, it is imperfect as
to the attainment of its end. And as in husbandry it is first requisite
that the soil be fertile, next that the husbandman be skilful, and lastly
that the seed he sows be good; so here nature resembles the soil, the
instructor of youth the husbandman, and the rational principles and
precepts which are taught, the seed. And I would per-emptorily affirm
that all these met and jointly conspired to the completing of the souls of
those universally celebrated men, Pythagoras, Socrates, and Plato, to-
gether with all others whose eminent worth hath begotten them immor-
tal glory. And happy is that man certainly, and well-beloved of the
Gods, on whom by the bounty of any of them all these are conferred.
And yet if any one thinks that those in whom Nature hath not
thoroughly done her part may not in some measure make up her defects,
if they be so happy as to light upon good teaching, and withal apply
their own industry towards the attainment of virtue, he is to know that
he is very much, nay, altogether, mistaken. For as a good natural
capacity may be impaired by slothfulness, so dull and heavy natural
parts may be improved by instruction ; and whereas negligent students
arrive not at the capacity of understanding the most easy things, those
who are industrious conquer the greatest difficulties. And many in-
stances we may observe, that give us a clear demonstration of the mighty
force and successful efficacy of labor and industry. For water continu-
ally dropping will wear out hard rocks hollow ; yea, iron and brass are
worn out with constant handling. Nor can we, if we would, reduce the
felloes of a cart-wheel to their formed straightness, when once they have
been bent by force ; yea, it is above the power of force to straighten the
bended staves sometimes used by actors upon the stage. So far is that
which labor effects, though against nature, more potent than what is
produced according to it. Yea, have we not many millions of instances
more which evidence the force of industry? Let us see in some few
that follow. A man's ground is of itself good ; yet, if it be unmanured,
it will contract barrenness ; and the better it was naturally, so much the
more is it ruined by carelessness, if it be ill-husbanded. On the other
side, let a man's ground be more than ordinarily rough and rugged ; yet
experience tells us that, if it be well manured, it will be quickly* made
PLUTARCH 378
capable of bearing excellent fruit. Yea, what sort of tree is there which
will not, if neglected, grow crooked and unfruitful ; and what but will,
if rightly ordered, prove faithful and bring its fruit to maturity? What
strength of body is there which will not lose its vigor and fall to decay
by laziness, nice usage, and debauchery ? And, on the contrary, where
is the man of never so crazy a natural constitution, who can not render
himself far more robust, if he will only give himself to exercise
activity and strength ? What horse well managed from a colt proves not
easily governable by the rider? And where is there one to be found
which, if not broken betimes, proves not stiff-necked and unmanage-
able ? Yea, why need we wonder at anything else when we see the wild-
est beasts made tame and brought to hand by industry ? And lastly, as
to men themselves, that Thessalian answered not amiss, who, being
asked which of his countrymen were the meekest, replied : Those that
have received their discharge from the wars.
But what need of multiplying more words in this matter, when
even the notion of the word athos in the Greek language imports con-
tinuance, and he that should call moral virtues customary virtues would
seem to speak not incongruously ? I shall conclude this part of my dis-
course, therefore, with the addition of one only instance. Lycurgus, the
Lacedaemonian lawgiver, once took two whelps of the same litter, and
ordered them to be bred in quite a different manner ; whereby one be-
came dainty and ravenous, and the other of a good scent and skilled in
hunting ; which done, a while after he took occasion thence in an assem-
bly of the Lacedaemonians to discourse in this manner: Of great
weight in the attainment of virtue, fellow-citizens, are habits, instruc-
tion, precepts, and indeed the whole manner of life — as I will presently
let you see by example. And, withal, he ordered the producing those
two whelps into the midst of the hall, where also there were set down
before them a plate and a live hare. Whereupon, as they had been bred,
the one presently flies upon the hare, and the other as greedily runs to
the plate. And while the people were musing, not perfectly apprehend-
ing what he meant by producing those whelps thus, he added : These
whelps were both of one litter, but differently bred ; the one, you see,
has turned out a greedy cur, and the other a good hound. And this shall
suffice to be spoken concerning custom and different ways of living.
5. The next thing that falls under our consideration is the nursing
of children, which, in my judgment, the mothers should do themselves,
giving their own breast to those they have borne. For this office will
certainly be performed with more tenderness and carefulness by natural
374 PLUTARCH
mothers, who will love their children intimately, as the saying is, from
their tender nails. Whereas, both wet and dry nurses, who are hired,
love only for their pay, and are affected to their work as ordinarily those
that are substituted and deputed in the place of others are. Yea, even
Nature seems to have assigned the suckling and nursing of the issue to
those that bear them: for which cause she hath bestowed upon every
living creature that brings forth young, milk to nourish them withal.
And, in conformity thereto, Providence hath only wisely ordered that
women should have two breasts, that so, if any of them should happen
to bear twins, they might have two several springs of nourishment
ready for them. Though, if they had not that furniture, mothers would
still be more kind and loving to their own children. And that not with-
out reason ; for constant feeding together is a great means to heighten
the affection mutually betwixt any persons. Yea, even beasts, when
they are separated from those that have grazed with them, do in their
way show a longing for the absent. Wherefore, as I have said, mothers
themselves should strive to the utmost to nurse their own children. But
if they find it impossible to do it themselves, either because of bodily
weakness (and such a case may fall out), or because they are apt to be
quickly with child again, then are they to chose the honestest nurses
they can get, and not to take whomsoever they have offered them. And
the first thing to be looked after in this choice is, that the nurse be bred
after the Greek fashion. For as it is needful that the members of chil-
dren be shaped aright as soon as they are born, that they may not after-
wards prove crooked and distorted, so it is no less expedient that their
manners be well fashioned from the very beginning. For childhood is a
tender thing, and easily wrought into any shape. Yea, and the very
souls of children readily receive the impressions of those things that
are dropped into them while they are yet but soft ; but when they grow
older, they will, as all hard things are, be more difficult to be wrought
upon. And as soft wax is apt to- take the stamp of the seal, so are the
minds of children to receive the instructions imprinted on them at that
age. Whence, also, it seems to me good advice which divine Plato gives
to nurses, not to tell all sorts of common tales to children in infancy, lest
thereby their minds should chance to be filled with foolish and corrupt
notions. The like good counsel Phocylides, the poet, seems to give in
this verse of his :
If we'll have virtuous children, we should choose
Their tenderest age good principles to infuse.
PLUTARCH 375
6. Nor are we to omit taking due care, in the first place, that
those children who are appointed to attend upon such young nurslings,
and to be bred with them for play-fellows, be well-mannered, and next
that they speak plain, natural Greek ; lest, being constantly used to con-
verse with persons of a barbarous language and evil manners, they re-
ceive corrupt tinctures from them. For it is a true proverb, that if you
live with a lame man, you will learn to halt.
7. Next, when a child is arrived at such an age as to be put under
the care of pedagogues, great care is to be used that we be not deceived
in them, and so commit our children to slaves or barbarians or cheating
fellows. For it is a course never enough to be laughed at which many
men nowadays take in this affair ; for if any of their servants be better
than the rest, they dispose some of them to follow husbandry, some to
navigation, some to merchandise, some to be stewards in their houses,
and some, lastly, to put out their money to use for them. But if they
find any slave that is a drunkard or a glutton, and unfit for any other
business, to him they assign the government of their children ; whereas,
a good pedagogue ought to be such a one in his disposition as Phoenix,
tutor to Achilles, was.
And now I come to speak of that which is a greater matter, and
of more concern thon any that I have said. We are to look after such
masters for our children as are blameless in their lives, not justly re-
provable for their manners, and of the best experience in teaching.
For the very spring and root of honesty and virtue lies in the felicity of
lighting on good education. And as husbandmen are wont to set forks
to prop up feeble plants, so do honest schoolmasters prop up youth by
careful instructions and admonitions, that they may duly bring forth
the buds of good manners. But there are certain fathers nowadays
who deserve that men should spit on them in contempt, who, before
making any proof of those to whom they design to commit the teaching
of their children, either through unacquaintance, or, as it sometimes
falls out, through unskilfulness, intrust them to men of no good reputa-
tion, or, it may be, such as are branded with infamy. Although they
are not altogether so ridiculous, if they offend herein through unskil-
fulness ; but it is a thing most extremely absurd, when, as oftentimes it
happens, though they know they are told beforehand, by those who
understand better than themselves, both of the inability and rascality
of certain schoolmasters, they nevertheless commit the charge of their
children to them, sometimes overcome by their fair and flattering
speeches, and sometimes prevailed on to gratify friends who entreat
376 PLUTARCH
them. This is an error of like nature with that of the sick man, who,
to please his friends, forbears to send for the physician that might save
his life by his skill, and employs a mountebank that quickly dispatches
him out of the world ; or of his who refuses a skilful shipmaster, and
then, at his friend's entreaty, commits the care of his vessel to one that
is therein much his inferior. In the name of Jupiter and all the gods,
tell me how can that man deserve the name of a father, who is more con-
cerned to gratify others in their requests, than to have his children well
educated. Or, is it not rather fitly applicable to this case, which So-
crates, that ancient philosopher, was wont to say — that, if he could get
up to the highest place in the city, he would lift up his voice and make
this proclamation thence : "What mean you, fellow-citizens, that you
thus turn every stone to scrape wealth together, and take so little care
of your children, to whom, one day, you must relinquish it all?" — to
which I would add this, that such parents do like him that is solicitous
about his shoe, but neglects the foot that is to wear it. And yet many
fathers there are, who so love their money and hate their children, that,
lest it should cost them more than they are willing to spare to hire a
good schoolmaster for them, they rather choose such persons to instruct
their children as they are worth ; therebv beating down the market, that
they may purchase ignorance cheap. It was, therefore, a witty and
handsome jeer which Aristippus bestowed on a sottish father, who
asked him what he would take to teach his child. He answered, A
thousand drachmas. When the other cried out : Oh, Hercules, what
a price you ask ! for I can buy a slave at that rate. Do so, then, said
the philosopher, and thou shalt have two slaves instead of one — thy son
for one, and him thou buyest for another. Lastly, how absurd it is,
when thou accustomest thy children to take their food with their right
hands, and chidest them if they receive it with their left, yet thou takest
no care at all that the principles that are infused into them be right and
regular.
And now I will tell you what ordinarily is like to befall such
prodigious parents, when they have their sons ill nursed and worse
taught. For when such sons are arrived at man's estate, and, through
contempt of a sound and orderly way of living, precipitate themselves
into all manner of disorderly and servile pleasures, then will those
parents dearly repent of their own neglect of their children's educa-
tion, when it is too late to amend ; and vex themselves, even to distrac-
tion, at their vicious courses. For then do some of those children
acquaint themselves with flatterers and parasites, a sort of infamous
PLUTARCH 377
«nd execrable persons, the very pests that corrupt and ruin young men ;
others waste their substance ; others, again, come to shipwreck on gam-
ing and revelling. And some venture on still more audacious crimes,
committing adultery and joining in the orgies of Bacchus, being ready
to purchase one bout of debauched pleasure at the price of their lives.
If now they had but conversed with some philosopher, they would
never have enslaved themselves to such courses as these ; though pos-
sibly they might have learned at least to put in practice the precepts of
Diogenes, delivered by him indeed in rude language, but yet containing,
as to the scope of it, a great truth, when he advised a young man to go
to the public stews, that he might then inform himself, by experience,
how things of great value and things of no value at all were there of
equal worth.
8. In brief therefore I say (and what I say may justly challenge
the repute of an oracle rather than of advice), that the one chief thing
in that matter — which compriseth the beginning, middle and end of all
— is good education and regular instruction ; and that these two afford
great help and assistance toward the attainment of virtue and felicity.
For all other good things are but human and of small value, such as
will hardly recompense the industry required to the getting of them.
It is, indeed, a desirable thing to be well descended ; but the glory be-
longs to our ancestors. Riches are valuable; but they are the goods
of Fortune, who frequently takes them from those that have them, and
carries them to those that never so much as hoped for them. Yea. the
greater they are, the fairer mark they are for those to aim at who design
to make our bags their prize ; I mean evil servants and accusers. But
the weightiest consideration of all is, that riches may be enjoyed by the
worst as well as the best of men. Glory is a thing deserving respect,
but unstable; beauty is a prize that men fight to obtain, but, when
obtained, it is of little continuance ; health is a precious enjoyment, but
easily impaired ; strength is a thing desirable, but apt to be the prey of
disease and old age. And, in general, let any man who values himself
upon strength of body know that he makes a great mistake ; for what
indeed is any proportion of human strength, if compared to that of
other animals, such as elephants and bulls and lions? But learning
alone, of all things in our possession, is immortal and divine. And
two things there are that are most peculiar to human nature, reason and
speech ; of which two, reason is the master of speech, and speech is the
servant of reason, impregnable against all assaults of fortune, not to
be taken away by false accusation, nor impaired by sickness, nor enfee-
3-24
378 PLDTARCH
bled by old age. For reason alone grows youthful by age ; and time,
which decays all other things before it carries them away with it, leaves
learning alone behind. Whence the answer seems to me very remarkable,
which Stilpo, a philosopher of Megara, gave to Demetrius, who, when
he levelled that city to the ground and made the citizens bondsmen,
asked Stilpo whether he had lost anything. Nothing, he said, for war
cannot plunder virtue. To this saying that of Socrates also is very
agreeable; who, when Gorgias (as I take it) asked him what his opin-
ion was of the king of Persia, and whether he judged him happy, re-
turned answer, that he could not tell what to think of him, because
he knew not how he was furnished with virtue and learning — as judg-
ing human felicity to consist in those endowments, and not in those
which are subject to fortune.
9. Moreover, as it is my advice to parents that they make the
breeding up of their children to learning the chiefest of their care, so I
here add, that the learning they ought to train them up unto should be
sound and wholesome, and such as is most remote from those trifles
which suit the popular humor. For to please the many is to displease
the wise. To this saying to mine Euripides himself bears witness:
I'm better skilled to treat a few, my peers,
Than in a crowd to tickle vulgar ears ;
Though others have the luck on't, when they babble
Most to the wise, then most to please the rabble.
Besides, I find by my own observation, that those persons who
make it their business to speak so as to deserve the favor and approba-
tion of the scum of the people, ordinarily live at a suitable rate, voluptu-
ously and intemperately. And there is reason for it. For they who have
no regard to what is honest, so they may make provision for other men's
pleasures, will surely not be very prepense to prefer what is right and
wholesome before that which gratifies their own inordinate pleasures
and luxurious inclinations, and to quit that which humors them for that
which restrains them.
If any one ask what the next thing is wherein I would have children
instructed, and to what further good qualities I would have them
insured, I answer, that I think it advisable that they neither speak nor
do anything rashly ; for, according to the proverb, the best things are
the most difficult. But extemporary discourses are full of much ordi-
nary and loose stuff, nor do such speakers well know where to begin or
where to make an end. And besides other faults which those. who
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speak suddenly are commonly guilty of, they are commonly liable to
this great one, that they multiply words without measure; whereas,
premeditation will not suffer a man to enlarge his discourse beyond a
due proportion. To this purpose it is reported of Pericles, that, being
often called upon by the people to speak, he would not, because (as he
said) he was unprepared. And Demosthenes also, who imitated him in
the managery of public affairs, when the Athenians urged him to give
his counsel, refused it with this answer: I have not yet prepared
myself. Though it may be that this story is a mere fiction, brought
down to us by uncertain tradition, without any credible author. But
Demosthenes, in his oration against Midias, clearly sets forth the use-
fulness of premeditation. For there he says : "I confess, O ye Athen-
ians ! that I came hither provided to speak ; and I will by no means deny
that I have spent my utmost study upon the composing this oration.
For it had been a pitiful omission in me, if, having suffered and still
suffering such things, I should have neglected that which in this cause
was to be spoken by me." But here I would not be understood alto-
gether to condemn all readiness to discourse extempore, nor yet to allow
the use of it upon such occasions as do not require it ; but we are to use
it only as we do physic. Still, before a person arrives at complete man-
hood, I would not permit him to speak upon any sudden incident occa-
sion ; though, after he has attained a radicated faculty of speaking, he
may allow himself a greater liberty, as opportunity is offered. For as
they who have been a long time in chains, when they are at last set at
liberty, are unable to walk, on account of their former continual
restraint, and are very apt to trip, so they who have been used to a fet-
tered way of speaking a great while, if upon any occasion they be
enforced to speak on a sudden, will hardly be able to express themselves
without some tokens of their former confinement. But to permit those
that are yet children to speak extemporally is to give them occasion for
extremely idle talk. A wretched painter, they say, showing Apelles a
picture, told him withal that he had taken a very little time to paint it.
If thou hadst not told me so, said Apelles, I see cause enough to believe
it was a hasty draught ; but I wonder that in that space of time thou
hast not painted many more such pictures.
I advise therefore (for I return now to the subject that I have
digressed from) the shunning and avoiding, not merely of a starched,
theatrical, and over-tragical form of speaking, but also of that which is
too low and mean. For that which is too swelling is not fit for the man-
agery of public affairs ; and that, on the other side, which is too thin is
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very inapt to work any notable impression upon the hearers. For as it
is not only requisite that a man's body be healthy, but also that it be of a
firm constitution, so ought a discourse to be not only sound, but ner-
vous also. For though such as is composed cautiously may be com-
mended, yet that is all it can arrive at ; whereas that which hath some
adventurous passages in it is admired also. And my opinion is the same
concerning the affections of the speaker's mind. For he must be neither
of a too confident nor of a too mean and dejected spirit; for the one is
apt to lead to impudence, the other to servility ; and much of the orator's
art, as well as great circumspection, is required to direct his course skil-
fully betwixt the two.
And now (whilst I am handling this point concerning the instruc-
tion of children) I will also give you my judgment concerning the frame
of a discourse ; which is this, that to compose it in all parts uniformly
not only is a great argument of a defect in learning, but also is apt, I
think, to nauseate the auditory when it is practised ; and in no case can
it give lasting pleasure. For to sing the same tune, as the saying is, is
in everything cloying and offensive ; but men are generally pleased with
variety, as in speeches and pageants, so in all other entertainments.
10. Wherefore, though we ought not to permit an ingenious child
entirely to neglect any of the common sorts of learning, so far as they
may be gotten by lectures or from public shows ; yet I would have him
to salute these only as in his passage, taking a bare taste of each of them
(seeing no man can possibly attain to perfection in all), and to give
philosophy the pre-eminence of them all. I can illustrate my meaning
by an example. It is a fine thing to sail around and visit many cities,
but it is profitable to fix our dwelling in the best. Witty also was the
saying of Bias, the philosopher, that, as the wooers of Penelope, when
they could not have their desire of the mistress, contented themselves to
have to do with her maids, so commonly those students who are not
capable of understanding philosophy waste themselves in the study of
those sciences that are of no value. Whence it follows, that we ought
to make philosophy the chief of all our learning. For though, in order
to the welfare of the body, the industry of men hath found out two arts,
— medicine, which assists to the recovery of lost health, and gymnastics,
which help us to attain- a sound constitution, — yet there is but one
remedy for the distempers and diseases of the mind, and that is phil-
osophy. For by the advice and assistance thereof it is that we come to
understand what is honest, and what dishonest; what is just, and what
unjust ; in a word, what we are to seek, and what to avoid. We learn
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by it how we are to demean ourselves towards the gods, towards our
parents, our elders, the laws, strangers, governors, friends, wives,
children, and servants. That is, we are to worship the gods, to honor
our parents, to reverence our elders, to be subject to the laws, to obey
our governors, to love our friends, to use sobriety towards our wives,
to be affectionate to our children, and not to treat our servants insol-
ently; and (which is the chief est lesson of all) not to be overjoyed in
prosperity nor too much dejected in adversity ; not to be dissolute in
our pleasures, nor in our anger to be transported with brutish rage and
fury. These things I account the principal advantages which we gain
by philosophy. For to use prosperity generously is the part of a man ;
to manage it so as to decline envy, of a well governed man ; to master
our pleasures by reason is the property of wise men ; and to moderate
anger is the attainment only of extraordinary' men. But those of all men
I count most complete, who know how to mix and temper the managery
of civil affairs with philosophy ; seeing they are thereby masters of two
of the greatest good things that are, — a life of public usefulness as
statesmen, and a life of calm tranquility as students of philosophy. For,
whereas there are three sorts of lives, — the life of action, the life of con-
templation, and the life of pleasure, — the man who is utterly abandoned
and a slave to pleasure is brutish and mean-spirited ; he that spends his
time in contemplation without action is an unprofitable man; and he
that lives in action and is destitute of philosophy is a rustical man, and
commits many absurdities. Wherefore we are to apply our utmost
endeavor to enable ourselves for both ; that is, to manage public
employments, and withal, at convenient seasons, to give ourselves to
philosophical studies. Such statesmen were Pericles and Archytas the
Tarentine; such were Dion the Syracusan and Epaminondas the
Theban, both of whom were of Plato's familiar acquaintance.
I think it not necessary to spend many more words about this point,
the instruction of children in learning. Only it may be profitable at
least, or even necessary, not to omit procuring for them the writings of
ancient authors, but to make such a collection of them as husbandmen
are wont to do of all needful tools. For of the same nature is the use of
books to scholars, as being the tools and instruments of learning, and
withal enabling them to derive knowledge from its proper fountains.
n. In the next place, the exercise of the body must not be
neglected ; but children must be sent to schools of gymnastics, where
they may have sufficient employment that way also. This will conduce
partly to a more handsome carriage, and partly to the improvement of
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their strength. For the foundation of a vigorous old age is a good con-
stitution of the body in childhood. Wherefore, as it is expedient to
provide those things in fair weather which may be useful to the
mariners in a storm, so is it to keep good order and govern ourselves by
rules of temperance in youth, as the best provision we can lay in for age.
Yet must they husband their strength, so as not to become dried up
(as it were) and destitute of strength to follow their studies. For,
according to Plato, sleep and weariness are enemies to the arts.
But why do I stand so long on these things ? I hasten to speak of
that which is of the greatest importance, even beyond all that has been
spoken of ; namely, I would have boys trained for the contests of wars
by practice in the throwing of darts, shooting of arrows, and hunting of
wild beasts. For we must remember in war the goods of the conquered
are proposed as rewards to the conquerors. But war does not agree
with a delicate habit of body, used only to the shade ; for even one lean
soldier that hath been used to military exercises shall overthrow whole
troops of mere wrestlers who know nothing of war. But, somebody
may say, whilst you profess to give precepts for the education of all
free-born children, why do you carry the matter so as to seem only to
accommodate those precepts to the rich, and neglect to suit them also to
the children of poor men and plebeians? To which objection it is no
difficult thing to reply. For it is my desire that all children whatsoever
may partake of the benefit of education alike ; but if yet any persons, by
reason of the narrowness of their estates, can not make use of my pre-
cepts, let them not blame me that give them, for Fortune, which dis-
ableth them from making the advantage by them they otherwise might
Though even poor men must use their utmost endeavor to give their
children the best education ; or, if they can not, they must bestow upon
them the best that their abilities will reach. Thus much I thought fit
here to insert in the body of my discourse, that I might the better be
enabled to annex what I have yet to add concerning the right training
of children.
12. I say now, that children are to be won to follow liberal studies
by exhortations and rational motives, and on no account to be forced
thereto by whipping or any other contumelious punishments. I will not
argue that such usage seems to be more agreeable to slaves than to
ingenuous children ; and even slaves, when thus handled, are dulled and
discouraged from the performance of their tasks, partly by reason of
the smart of their stripes, and partly because of the disgrace thereby
inflicted. But praise and reproof are more effectual upon free-born
PLUTARCH 383
children than any such disgraceful handling ; the former to incite them
to what is good, and the latter to restrain them from that which is evil.
But we must use reprehensions and commendations alternately, and of
various kinds according to the occasion ; so that when they grow petu-
lant, they may be shamed by reprehension, and again, when they better
deserve it, they may be encouraged by commendations. Wherein we
ought to imitate nurses, who, when they have made their infants cry,
stop their mouths with the nipple to quiet them again. It is also useful
not to give them such large commendations as to puff them up with
pride ; for this is the ready way to fill them with a vain conceit of them-
selves, and to enfeeble their minds.
13. Moreover, I have seen some parents whose too much love to
their children hath occasioned, in truth, their not loving them at all. I
will give light to this assertion by an example, to those who ask what it
means. It is this : while they are over-hasty to advance their children
in all sorts of learning beyond their equals, they set them too hard and
laborious tasks, whereby they fall under discouragement ; and this, with
other inconveniences accompanying it, causeth them in the issue to be ill
affected to learning itself. For as plants by moderate watering are
nourished, but with over-much moisture are glutted, so is the spirit
improved by moderate labors, but overwhelmed by such as are excessive.
We ought therefore to give children some time to take breath from their
constant labors, considering that all human life is divided betwixt busi-
ness and relaxation. To which purpose it is that we are inclined by
nature not only to wake, but to sleep also ; that as we have sometimes
wars, so likewise at other times peace ; so some foul, so other fair days ;
and, as we have seasons of important business, so also the vacation times
of festivals. And, to contract all in a word, rest is the sauce of labor.
Nor is it thus in living creatures only, but in things inanimate too. For
even in bows and harps, we loosen their strings, that we may bend and
wind them up again. Yea, it is universally seen that, as the body is
maintained by repletion and evacuation, so is the mind by employment
and relaxation.
Those parents, moreover, are to be blamed who, when they have
committed their sons to the care of pedagogues or schoolmasters, never
see or hear them perform their tasks ; wherein they fail much of their
duty. For they ought, ever and anon, after the intermission of some
days, to make trial of their children's proficiency ; and not intrust their
hopes of them to the discretion of a hireling. For even that sort of men
will take more care of the children, when they know that they are regul-
384 PLUTARCH
arly to be called to account. And here the saying of the king's groom is
very applicable, that nothing made the horse so fat as the king's eye.
But we must most of all exercise and keep in constant employment
the memory of children ; for that is, as it were, the storehouse of all
learning. Wherefore the mythologists have made Mnemosyne, or
Memory, the mother of the Muses, plainly intimating thereby that
nothing doth so beget or nourish learning as memory. Wherefore we
must employ it to both those purposes, whether the children be naturally
apt or backward to remember. For so shall we both strengthen it in
those to whom Nature in this respect hath been bountiful, and supply
that to others wherein she hath been deficient. And as the former sort
of boys will thereby come to excel others, so will the latter sort excel
themselves. For that of Hesiod was well said, —
Oft little add to little, and the account
Will swell : heapt atoms thus produce a mount.
Neither, therefore, let the parents be ignorant of this, that the exer-
cising of memory in the schools doth not only give the greatest assist-
ance towards the attainment of learning, but also to all the actions of
life. For the remembrance of things past affords us examples in our
consults about things to come.
14. Children ought to be made to abstain from speaking filthily,
seeing, as Democritus said, words are but the shadows of actions.
They are, moreover, to be instructed to be affable and courteous in dis-
course. For as churlish manners are always detestable, so children may
be kept from being odious in conversation, if they will not be pertin-
aciously bent to maintain all they say in dispute. For it is of use to a
man to understand not only how to overcome, but also how to give
ground when to conquer would turn to his disadvantage. For there is
such a thing sometimes as a Cadmean victory ; which the wise Euripides
attesteth, when he saith, —
Where two discourse, if the one's anger rise,
The man who lets the contest fall is wise.
Add we now to these things some others of which children ought
to have no less, yea, rather greater care ; to-wit, that they avoid luxur-
ious living, bridle their tongues, subdue anger, and refrain their hands.
Of how great moment each of these counsels is, I now come to inquire ;
and we may best judge of them by examples. To begin with the last:
some men there have been, who, by opening their hands to take what
PLUTARCH :;<•>
they ought not, have lost all the honor they got in the former part of
their lives. So Gylippus the Lacedaemonian, for unsewing the public
money-bags, was condemned to banishment from Sparta. And to be
able also to subdue anger is the part of a wise man. Such a one was
Socrates ; for when a hectoring and debauched young man rudely kicked
him, so that those in his company, being sorely offended, were ready to
run after him and call him to account for it, What, said he to them, if
an ass had kicked me, would you think it handsomely done to kick him
again? And yet the young man himself escaped not unpunished; for
when all persons reproached him for so unworthy an act, and gave him
the nickname of Laktistes, or the kicker, he hanged himself. The
same Socrates, — when Aristophanes, publishing his play which he called
the Clouds, therein threw all sorts of the foulest reproaches upon him,
and a friend of his, who was present at the acting of it, repeated to him
what was there said in the same comical manner, asking him withal,
Does not this offend you, Socrates ? — replied : Not at all, for I can as
well bear with a fool in a play as at a great feast. And something of
the same nature is reported to have been done by Archytas of Tarentum
and Plato. Archytas, when, upon his return from the war, wherein he
had been a general, he was informed that his land had been impaired by
his bailiff's negligence, sent for him, and said only thus to him when he
came: If I were not very angry with thee, I would severely correct
thee. And Plato, being offended with a gluttonous and debauched
servant, called to him Speusippus, his sister's son, and said unto him:
Go beat thou this fellow , for 1 am too much offended with him to do it
myself.
These things, you will perhaps say, are very difficult to be imitated.
I confess it ; but yet we must endeavor to the utmost of our power, by
setting such examples before us, to repress the extravagancy of our
immoderate, furious anger. For neither are we able to rival the experi-
ence or virtue of such men in many other matters ; but we do, never-
theless, as sacred interpreters of divine mysteries and priests of wisdom,
strive to follow these examples, and, as it were, to enrich ourselves with
what we can nibble from them.
And as to the bridling of the tongue, concerning which also I am
obliged to speak, if any man think it a small matter or of mean concern-
ment, he is much mistaken. For it is a point of wisdom to be silent
when occasion requires, and better than to speak, though never so well.
And, in my judgment, for this reason the ancients instituted mystical
rites of initiation in religion, that, being in them accustomed to silence,
388 PLUTARCH
we might thence transfer the fear we have of the gods to the fidelity
required in human secrets. Yea, indeed, experience shows that no man
ever repented of having kept silence ; but many that they have not done
so. And a man may, when he will, easily utter what he hath by silence
concealed; but it is impossible for him to recall what he hath once
spoken. And, moreover, I can remember infinite examples that have
been told me of those that have procured great damages to themselves
by intemperance of the tongue : one or two of which I will give, omit-
ting the rest. When Ptolemaeus Philadelphus had taken his sister
Arsinoe to wife, Sotades for breaking an obscene jest upon him lay
languishing in prison a great while ; a punishment which he deserved
for his unseasonable babbling, whereby to provoke laughter in others
he purchased a long time of mourning to himself. Much after the same
rate, or rather still worse, did Theocritus the Sophist both talk and
suffer. For when Alexander commanded the Grecians to provide him
a purple robe, wherein, upon his return from the wars, he meant to
sacrifice to the Gods in gratitude for his victorious success against the
barbarians, and the various states were bringing in the sums assessed
upon them, Theocritus said : I now see clearly that this is what Homer
calls purple death, which I never understood before. By which speech
he made the king his enemy from that time forwards. The same person
provoked Antigonus, the king of Macedonia, to great wrath, by
reproaching him with his defect, as having but one eye. Thus it was.
Antigonus commanded Eutropion, his master-cook, (then in waiting),
to go to this Theocritus and settle some accounts with him. And when
he announced his errand to Theocritus, and called frequently about the
business, the latter said : I know that thou hast a mind to dish me up
raw to that Cyclops ; thus reproaching at once the king with the want
of his eye, and the cook with his employment. To which Eutropion
replied : Then thou shalt lose thy head, as the penalty of thy loquacity
and madness. And he was as good as his word ; for he departed and
informed the king, who sent and put Theocritus to death.
Besides all these things, we are to accustom children to speak the
truth, and to account it, as indeed it is, a matter of religion for them to
do so. For lying is a servile quality, deserving the hatred of all man-
kind; yea, a fault for which we ought not to forgive our meanest
servants.
14. Thus far have I discoursed concerning the good-breeding of
children, and the sobriety requisite to that age, without any hesitation or
doubt in my own mind concerning any thing that I have said. But in
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what remains to be said, I am dubious and divided in my own thoughts,
which, as if they were laid in a balance, sometimes incline this, and
sometimes that way. I am therefore loath to persuade or dissuade in
the matter. But I must venture to answer one question, which is this :
whether we ought to admit those that make love to our sons to keep
them company, or whether we should not rather thrust them out of
doors, and banish them from their society. For when I look upon those
straightforward parents, of a harsh and austere temper, who think it an
outrage not to be endured that their sons should have anything to say to
lovers, I am tender of being the persuader or encourager of such a
practice. But, on the other side, when I call to mind Socrates, and
Plato, and Xenophon, and Aeschines, and Cebes, with an whole troop of
other such men, who have approved those masculine loves, and still have
brought up young men to learning, public employments, and virtuous
living, I am again of another mind, and am much influenced by my zeal
to imitate such great men. And the testimony also of Euripides is
favorable to their opinion, when he says, —
Another love there is in mortals found ;
The love of just and chaste and virtuous souls.
And yet I think it not improper here to mention withal that saying
of Plato, spoken betwixt jest and earnest, that men of great eminence
must be allowed to show affection to what beautiful objects they please.
I would decide then that parents are to keep off such as make beauty the
object of their affection, and admit altogether such as direct the love to
the soul ; whence such loves are to be avoided as are in Thebes and Elis,
and that sort which in Crete they call ravishment ; and such are to be
imitated as are in Athens and Sparta.
16. But in this matter let every man follow his own judgment.
Thus far have I discoursed concerning the right ordering and decent
carriage of children. I will now pass thence, to speak somewhat con-
cerning the next age, that of youth. For I have often blamed the evil
custom of some, who commit their boys in childhood to pedagogues and
teachers, and then suffer the impetuosity of their youth to range without
restraint; whereas boys of that age need to be kept under a stricter
guard than children. For who does not know that the errors of child-
hood are small, and perfectly capable of being amended; such as slight-
ing their pedagogues, or disobedience to their teachers' instructions.
But when they begin to grow towards maturity, their offences are often-
times very great and heinous; such as gluttony, pilfering money from
388 PLUTARCH
their parents, dicing, revelings, drunkenness, courting of maidens, and
defiling of marriage-beds. Wherefore it is expedient that such impetu-
ous heats should with great care be kept under and restrained. For the
ripeness of that age admits no bounds in its pleasures, is skittish, and
needs a curb to check it ; so that those parents who do not hold in their
sons with great strength about that time find to their surprise that they
are giving their vicious inclinations full swing in the pursuit of the vilest
actions. Wherefore it is a duty incumbent upon wise parents, in that
age especially, to set a strict watch upon them, and to keep them within
the bounds of sobriety by instructions, threatenings, entreaties, counsels,
promises, and by laying before them examples of those men (on one
side) who by immoderate love of pleasures have brought themselves
into great mischief, and of those (on the other hand) who by abstinence
in the pursuit of them have purchased to themselves very great praise
and glory. For these two things (hope of honor, and fear of punish-
ment) are, in a sort, the first elements of virtue; the former whereof
spurs men on more eagerly to the pursuit of honest studies, while the
latter blunts the edge of their inclinations to vicious courses.
17. And in sum, it is necessary to restrain young men from the
conversation of debauched persons, lest they take infection from their
evil examples. This was taught by Pythagoras in certain enigmatical
sentences, which I shall here relate and expound, as being greatly useful
to further virtuous inclinations. Such are these. Taste not of fish
that have black tails ; that is, converse not with men that are smutted
with vicious qualities. Stride not over the beam of the scales ; wherein
he teacheth us the regard we ought to have for justice, so as not to go
beyond its measures. Sit not on a ptioenix; wherein he forbids sloth,
and requires us to take care to provide ourselves with the necessaries of
life. Do not strike hands with even- man; he means we ought not to
be over hasty to make acquaintances or friendships with others. Wear
not a tight string ; that is, we are to labor after a free and independent
way of living, and to submit to no fetters. Stir not up the fire with a
sword ; signifying that we ought not to provoke a man more when he is
angry already (since this is a most unseemly act), but we should rather
comply with him while his passion is in its heat. Eat not thy heart;
which forbids to afflict our souls, and waste them with vexatious cares.
Abstain from beans ; that is, keep out of public offices, for anciently the
choice of the officers of state was made by beans. Put not food in a
chamber-pot; wherein he declares that elegant discourse ought not to
be put into an impure mind; for discourse is the food of the mind,
PLUTARCH M
which is rendered unclean by the foulness of the man who receives it.
When men are arrived at the goal, they should not turn back ; that is,
those who are near the end of their days, and see the period of their
lives approaching, ought to entertain it contentedly, and not to be
grieved at it.
But to return from this digression,— our children, as I have said,
are to be debarred the company of all evil men, but especially flatterers.
For I would still affirm what I have often said in the presence of divers
fathers, that there is not a more pestilent sort of men than these, nor
any that more certainly and speedily hurry youth into precipices. Yea,
they utterly ruin both fathers and sons, making the old age of the one
and the youth of the other full of sorrow, while they cover the hook
of their evil counsels with the unavoidable bait of voluptuousness.
Parents, when they have good estates to leave their children, exhort
them to sobriety, flatterers to drunkenness; parents exhort to contin-
ence, these to lasciviousness ; parents to good husbandry, these to pro-
digality ; parents to industry, these to sloth fulness. And they usually
entertain them with such discourses as these: The whole life of man
is but a point of time ; let us enjoy it therefore while it lasts, and not
spend it to no purpose. Why should you so much regard the displeas-
ure of your father? — an old doting fool, with one foot already in the
grave, and 'tis to be hoped it will not be long ere we carry him thither
altogether. And some of them there are who procure young men foul
harlots, yea, prostitute wives to them ; and they even make a prey of
those things which the careful fathers have provided for the sustenance
of their old age. A cursed tribe ! True friendship's hypocrites, they
have no knowledge of plain dealing and frank speech. They flatter
the rich, and despise the poor: and they seduce the young, as by a
musical charm. When those who feed them begin to laugh, then they
grin and show their teeth. They are mere counterfeits, bastard pre-
tenders to humanity, living at the nod and beck of the rich; free by
birth, yet slaves by choice, who always think themselves abused when
they are not so, because they are not supported in idleness at others'
cost. Wherefore, if fathers have any care for the good breeding of
their children, they ought to drive such foul beasts as these out of
doors. They ought also to keep them from the companionship of
vicious school-fellows, for these are able to corrupt the most ingenuous
dispositions.
1 8. These counsels which I have now given are of great worth
and importance: what I have now to add touches certain allowances
890 PLUTARCH
that are to be made to human nature. Again therefore I would not
have fathers of an over-rigid and harsh temper, but so mild as to for-
give some slips of youth, remembering that they themselves were once
young. But as physicians are wont to mix their bitter medicines with
sweet syrups, to make what is pleasant a vehicle for what is whole-
some, so should fathers temper the keenness of their reproofs with
lenity. They may occasionally loosen the reins, and allow their child-
ren to take some liberties they are inclined to, and again, when it is fit,
manage them with a straighter bridle. But chiefly should they bear
their errors without passion, if it may be; and if they chance to be
heated more than ordinary, they ought not to suffer the flame to burn
long. For it is better that a father's anger be hasty than severe;
because the heaviness of his wrath, joined with unplacableness, is no
small argument of hatred towards the child. It is good also not to
discover the notice they take of divers faults, and to transfer to such
cases that dimness of sight and hardness of hearing that are wont to
accompany old age ; so as sometimes not to hear what they hear, nor
to see what they see, of their children's miscarriages. We use to bear
with some failings in our friends, and it is no wonder if we do the like
to our children, especially when we sometimes overlook drunkenness
in our very servants. Thou hast at times been too straight-handed
to thy son ; make him at other whiles a larger allowance. Thou hast,
it may be been too angry with him ; pardon him the next fault to make
him amends. He hath made use of a servant's wit to circumvent thee
in something; restrain thy anger. He hath made bold to take a yoke
of oxen out of the pasture, or he hath come home smelling of his yes-
terday's drink ; take no notice of it ; and if of ointments too, say nothing.
For by this means the wild colt sometimes is made more tame. Besides,
for those who are intemperate in their youthful lusts, and will not be
amended by reproof, it is good to provide wives; for marriage is the
strongest bond to hamper wild youth withal. But we must take care
that the wives we procure for them be neither of too noble a birth nor
of too great a portion to suit their circumstances; for it is a wise
saying, drive on your own track. Whereas men that marry women
very much superior to themselves are not so truly husbands to their
wives, as they are unawares made slaves to their portions. I will add
a few words more, and put an end to these advices. The chiefest thing
that fathers are to look to is, that they themselves become effectual
examples to their children, by doing all those things which belong to
them and avoiding all vicious practices, that in their lives, as in a £lass,
PLUTARCH 391
their children may see enough to give them an aversion to all ill words
and actions. For those that chide children for such faults as they
themselves fall into unconsciously accuse themselves, under their
children's names. And if they are altogether vicious in their own
lives, they lose the right of reprehending their very servants, and much
more do they forfeit it towards their sons. Yea, what is more than
that, they make themselves even counsellors and instructors to them
in wickedness. For where old men are impudent, there of necessity
must the young men be so too. Wherefore we are to apply our minds
to all such practices as may conduce to the good breeding of our child-
ren. And here we may take example from Eurydice of Hierapolis,
who, although she was an Illyrian, and so thrice a barbarian, yet
applied herself to learning when she was well advanced in years, that
she might teach her children. Her love towards her children appears
evidently in this Epigram of hers, which she dedicated to the Muses : —
Eurydice to the Muses here doth raise
This monument, her honest love to praise;
Who her grown sons that she might scholars breed,
Then well in years, herself first learned to read.
And thus have I finished the precepts which I designed to give
concerning this subject. But that they should all be followed by any
one reader is rather, I fear, to be wished than hoped. And to follow
the greater part of them, though it may not be impossible to human
nature, yet will need a concurrence of more than ordinary diligence
joined with good fortune.
TRANSLATION OF SIMON FORD.
392
EPICTETUS
EPICTETUS was born in Phrygia in the latter half of the first
century A. D., and died about the end of the first quarter of the next
century. He was first the slave of Nero's freedman, Epaphroditus.
Origen writes that when Epaphroditus was torturing him, Epictetus
said calmly, "You will break my leg," and when it broke, just as
quietly, "Didn't I tell you?" He was freed, and lived in Rome until
Domitian banished the philosophers in 94 A. D., when he returned to
Greece. He lived into Hadrian's reign which began 117 A. D.
Epictetus was a stoic. He probably wrote nothing, but his talks
were preserved by his disciple Arrian. We give below his exposition
of some of the most typical of the stoic beliefs.
DISCOURSES
OF THE THINGS WHICH ARE IN OUR POWER, AND NOT
IN OUR POWER
OF ALL the faculties (except that which I shall soon mention),
you will find not one which is capable of contemplating itself, and,
consequently, not capable either of approving or disapproving. How
far does the grammatic art possess the contemplating power? As
far as forming a judgment about what is written and spoken. And
BPICTUTUS Ml
how far music? As far as judging about melody. Does either of
them then contemplate itself? By no means. But when you must
write something to your friend, grammar will tell you what words you
should write ; but whether you should write or not, grammar will not
tell you. And so it is with music as of musical sounds ; but whether
you should sing at the present time and play on the lute, or do neither,
music will not tell you. What faculty then will tell you ? That which
contemplates both itself and all other things. And what is this fac-
ulty ? The rational faculty ; for this is the only faculty that we have
received which examines itself, what it is, and what power it has, and
what is the value of this gift, and examines all other faculties : for
what else is there which tells us that golden things are beautiful, for
they do not say so themselves? Evidently it is the faculty which is
capable of judging of appearances. What else judges of music,
grammar, and the other faculties, proves their uses, and points out the
occasions for using them? Nothing else.
As then it was fit to be so, that which is best of all and supreme
over all is the only thing which the gods have placed in our power, the
right use of appearances ; but all other things they have not placed in
our power. Was it because they did not choose ? I indeed think that,
if they had been able, they would have put these other things also in
our power, but they certainly could not. For as we exist on the earth,
and are bound to such a body and to such companions, how was it pos-
sible for us not to be hindered as to these things by externals?
But what says Zeus ? Epictetus, if it were possible, I would have
made both your little body and your little property free and not exposed
to hindrance. But now be not ignorant of this : this body is not yours,
but it is clay finely tempered. And since I was not able to do for you
what I have mentioned, I have given you a small portion of us, this
faculty of pursuing an object and avoiding it, and the faculty of desire
and aversion, and, in a word, the faculty of using the appearances of
things ; and if you will take care of this faculty and consider it your
only possession, you will never be hindered, never meet with impedi-
ments; you will not lament, you will not. blame, you will not flatter
any person.
Well, do these seem to you small matters? I hope not. Be
content with them then and pray to the gods. But now when it is in
our power to look after one thing, and to attach ourselves to it, we
prefer to look after many things, and to be bound to many things, to
the body and to property, and to brother and to friend, and to child and
V 3-25
394 EPICTETUS
to slave. Since then we are bound to many things, we are depressed
by them and dragged down. For this reason, when the weather is not
fit for sailing, we sit down and torment ourselves, and continually look
out to see what wind is blowing. It is north. What is that to us?
When will the west wind blow ? When it shall choose, my good man,
or when it shall please Aeolus ; for God has not made you the manager
of the winds, but Aeolus. What then ? We must make the best use
that we can of the things which are in our power, and use the rest
according to their nature. What is their nature then? As God may
please.
Must I then alone have my head cut off? What, would you have
all men lose their heads that you may be consoled? Will you not
stretch out your neck as Lateranus did at Rome when Nero ordered
him to be beheaded? For when he had stretched out his neck, and
received a feeble blow, which made him draw it in for a moment, he
stretched it out again. And a little before, when he was visited by
Epaphroditus, Nero's freedman, who asked him about the cause of
offense which he had given, he said, "If I choose to tell anything, I
will tell your master,"
What then should a man have in readiness in such circumstances ?
What else than this ? What is mine, and what is not mine ; and what
is permitted to me, and what is not permitted to me. I must die.
Must I then die lamenting? I must be put in chains. Must I then
also lament? I must go into exile. Does any man then hinder me
from going with smiles and cheerfulness and contentment? Tell me
the secret which you possess. I will not, for this is in my power. But
I will put you in chains. Man, what are you talking about? Me in
chains? You may fetter my leg, but my will not even Zeus himself
can overpower. I will throw you into prison. My poor body, you
mean. I will cut your head off. When then have I told you that my
head alone can not be cut off? These are the things which philoso-
phers should meditate on, which they should write daily, in which they
should exercise themselves.
Thrasea used to say, I would rather be killed to-day than banished
to-morrow. What then did Rufus say to him? If you choose death
as the heavier misfortune, how great is the folly of your choice ? But
if, as the lighter, who has given you the choice? Will you not study
to be content with that which has been given to you?
What then did Agrippinus say? He said, "I am not a hindrance
to myself." When it was reported to him that his trial was £oing on
BPICTETUS
in the Senate, he said, "I hope it may turn out well ; but it is the fifth
hour of the day" — this was the time when he was used to exercise
himself and then take the cold hath — "let us go and take our exercise."
After he had taken his exercise, one comes and tells him, You have
been condemned. To banishment, he replies, or to death ? To banish-
ment. What about my property ? It is not taken from you. Let us
go to Aricia then, he said, and dine.
This it is to have studied what a man ought to study; to have
made desire, aversion, free from hindrance, and free from all that a
man would avoid. I must die. If now, I am ready to die. If, after
a short time, 1 now dine because it is the dinner-hour; after this I
will then die. How? Like a man who gives up what belongs to
another.
HOW A MAN ON EVERY OCCASION CAN MAINTAIN HIS
PROPER CHARACTER.
To the rational animal only is the irrational intolerable; but that
which is rational is tolerable. Blows are not naturally intolerable.
How is that? See how the Lacedaemonians endure whipping when
they have learned that whipping is consistent with reason. To hang
yourself is not intolerable. When then you have the opinion that it
is rational, you go and hang yourself. In short, if we observe, we
shall find that the animal man is pained by nothing so much as by that
which is irrational ; and, on the contrary, attracted to nothing so much
as to that which rational.
But the rational and the irrational appear such in a different way
to different persons, just as the good and the bad, the profitable and
the unprofitable. For this reason, particularly, we need discipline, in
order to learn how to adapt the preconception of the rational and the
irrational to the several things conformably to nature. But in order
to determine the rational and the irrational, we use not only the esti-
mates of external things, but we consider also what is appropriate to
each person. For to one man it is consistent with reason to hold a
chamber-pot for another, and to look to this only, that if he does not
hold it, he will receive stripes, and he will not receive his food : but if
he shall hold the pot, he will not suffer anything hard or disagreeable.
But to another man not only does the holding of a chamber-pot appear
intolerable for himself, but intolerable also for him to allow another
396 EPICTETU3
to do this for him. If then you ask me whether you should hold the
chamber-pot or not, I shall say to you that the receiving of food is
worth more than the not receiving of it, and the being scourged is a
greater indignity than not being scourged; so that if you measure
your interests by these things, go and hold the chamber-pot. "But
this," you say, "would not be worthy of me." Well then, it is you
who must introduce this consideration into the inquiry, not I; for it
is you who know yourself, how much you are worth to yourself, and
at what price you sell yourself ; for men sell themselves at various prices.
For this reason, when Florus was deliberating whether he should
go down to Nero's spectacles, and also perform in them himself, Agrip-
pinus said to him, Go down : and when Florus asked Agrippinus, Why
do not you go down ? Agrippinus replied, Because I do not even deli-
berate about the matter. For he who has once brought himself to
deliberate about such matters, and to calculate the value of external
things, comes very near to those who have forgotten their own char-
acter. For why do you ask me the question, whether death is prefer-
able or life? I say life. Pain or pleasure? I say pleasure. But if
I do not take a part in the tragic acting, I shall have my head struck
off. Go then and take a part, but I will not. Why? Because you
consider yourself to be only one thread of those which are in the tunic.
Well then it was fitting for you to take care how you should be like
the rest of men, just as the thread has no design to be anything superior
to the other threads. But I wish to be purple, that small part which
is bright, and makes all the rest appear graceful and beautiful. Why
then do you tell me to make myself like the many? and if I do, how
shall I still be purple?
Priscus Helviditis also saw this, and acted conformably. For when
Vespasian sent and commanded him not to go into the senate, he said,
"It is in your power not to allow me to be a member of the senate,
but so long as I am, I must go in." Well, go in then, says the em-
peror, but say nothing. Do not ask my opinion, and I will be silent.
But I must ask your opinion. And I must say what I think right. But
if you do, I shall put you to death. When then did I tell you that I
am immortal ? You will do your part, and I will do mine : it is your
part to kill; it is mine to die, but not in fear: yours to banish me;
mine to depart without sorrow.
What good then did Priscus do, who was only a single person?
And what good does the purple do for the toga ? Why, what else than
this, that it is conspicuous in the toga as purple, and is displayed also
BPICTBTUS 397
as a fine example to all other things? But in such circumstances
another would have replied to Caesar who forbids him to enter the
senate, I thank you for sparing me. But such a man Vespasian would
not even have forbidden to enter the senate, for he knew that he would
either sit there like an earthen vssel, or, if he spoke, he would say what
Caesar wished, and add even more.
In this way an athlete also acted who was in danger of dying
unless his private parts were amputated. His brother came to the
athlete, who was a philosopher, and said, Come, brother, what are
you going to do? Shall we amputate this member and return to the
gymnasium? But the athlete persisted in his resolution and died.
When some one asked Epictetns, How he did this, as an athlete or a
philosopher? As a man, Epictetus replied, and a man who had been
proclaimed among the athletes at the Olympic games and had contended
in them, a man who had been familiar with such a place, and not
merely anointed in Baton's school. Another would have allowed even
his head to be cut off, if he could have lived without it. Such is that
regard to character which is so strong in those who have been accus-
tomed to introduce it of themselves and conjoined with other things
into their deliberations.
Come then, Epictetus, shave yourself. If I am a philosopher, I
answer, I will not shave myself. But I will take off your head? If
that will do you any good, take it off.
Some person asked, how then shall every man among us perceive
what is suitable to his character ? How, he replied, does the bull alone,
when the lion has attacked, discover his own powers and put himself
forward in defence of the whole herd? It is plain that with the
powers the perception of having them is immediately conjoined ; and,
therefore, whoever of us has such powers will not be ignorant of them.
Now a bull is not made suddenly, nor a brave man ; but we must dis-
cipline ourselves in the winter for the summer campaign, and not rashly
run upon that which does not concern us.
Only consider at what price you sell your own will ; if for no
other reason, at least for this, that you sell it not for a small sum.
But the great and superior belongs perhaps to Socrates and such as
are like him. Why then, if we are naturally such, are not a very great
number of us like him? Is it true then that all horses become swift,
that all dogs are skilled in tracking footprints? What then, since I
am naturally dull, shall I, for this reason, take no pains? I hope not.
Epictetus is not superior to Socrates; but if he is not inferior, this is
393 EPICTETU3
enough for me ; for I shall never be a Milo, and yet I do not neglect
my body ; nor shall I be a Croesus, and yet I do not neglect my prop-
erty ; nor, in a word, do we neglect looking after anything because we
despair of reaching the highest degree.
HOW A MAN SHOULD PROCEED FROM THE PRINCIPLE
OF GOD BEING THE FATHER OF ALL MEN TO THE REST
If a man should be able to assent to this doctrine as he ought,
that we are all sprung from God in an especial manner, and that God
is the father both of men and of gods, I suppose that he would never
have any ignoble or mean thoughts about himself. But if Caesar (the
emperor) should adopt you, no one could endure your arrogance; and
if you know that you are the son of Zeus, will you not be elated? Yet
we do not so ; but since these two things are mingled in the generation
of man, body in common with the animals, and reason and intelligence
in common with the gods, many incline to this kinship, which is miser-
able and mortal ; and some few to that which is divine and happy.
Since then it is of necessity that every man uses everything according
to the opinion which he has about it, those, the few, who think that
they are formed for fidelity and modesty and a sure use of appearances
have no mean or ignoble thoughts about themselves ; but with the many
it is quite the contrary. For they say, What am I? A poor, miser-
able man, with my wretched bit of flesh. Wretched, indeed ; but you
possess something better than your bit of flesh. Why then do you
neglect that which is better, and why do you attach yourself to this?
Through this kinship with the flesh, some of us inclining to it
become like wolves, faithless and treacherous and mischievous: some
become like lions, savage and bestial and untamed; but the greater
part of us become foxes, and other worse animals. For what else is
a slanderer and a malignant man than a fox, or some other more
wretched and meaner animal ? See then and take care that you do not
become some one of these miserable things.
OF PROGRESS OR IMPROVEMENT
He who is making progress, having learned from philosophers
that desire means the desire of good things, and aversion mean? aver-
BPICTETUS 399
sion from bad things; having learned too that happiness and tran-
quillity are not attainable by man or woman except by not failing to ob-
tain what he desires, and not falling into that which he would avoid ;
such a man takes from himself desire altogether and defers it, but he
employs his aversion only on things which are dependent of his will,
he knows that sometimes he will fall in with something which he
wishes to avoid, and he will be unhappy. Now if virtue promises
good fortune and tranquillity and happiness, certainly also the progress
towards virtue is progress towards each of these things. For it is
always true that to whatever point the perfecting of anything leads us,
progress is an approach towards this point.
How then do we admit that virtue is such as I have said, and yet
seek progress in other things and make a display of it? What is the
product of virtue ? Tranquillity. Who then makes improvement ? Is
it he who has read many books of Chrysippus ? But does virtue consist
in having understood Chrysippus? If this is so, progress is clearly
nothing else than knowing a great deal of Chrysippus. But now we
admit that virtue produces one thing, and we declare that approaching
near to it is another thing, namely, progress or improvement. Such a
person, says one, is already .able to read Chrysippus by himself. Indeed,
sir, you are making great progress. What kind of progress? But
why do you mock the man? Why do you draw him away from the
perception of his own misfortunes? Will you not show him the effect
of virtue that he may learn where to look for improvement? Seek
it there, wretch, where your work is. Yes. And where is your work ?
In desire and in aversion, that you may not be disappointed in your
desire, and that you may not fall into that which you would avoid ;
in your pursuit and avoiding, that you commit no error ; in assent and
suspension of assent, that you be not deceived. The first things, and
the most necessary, are those which I have named. But if with
trembling and lamentation you seek not to fall into that which you
avoid, tell me how you are improving.
Do you then show me your improvement in these things? If I
were talking to an athlete, I should say, Show me your shoulders ; and
then he might say, Here are my Halteres. You and your Halteres
look to that. I should reply, I wish to see the effect of the Halteres.
So, when you say : Take the treatise on the active powers (horma), and
see how I have studied it. I reply, Slave, I am not inquiring about
this, but how you exercise pursuit and avoidance, desire and aversion,
how you design and purpose and prepare yourself, whether conform-
400 EPICTETUS
ably to nature or not. If conformably, give me evidence of it, and I
will say that you are making progress: but if not conformably, be
gone, and not only expound your books, but write such books yourself;
and what will you gain by it? Do you not know that the whole book
costs only five denarii? Does then the expounder seem to be worth
more than five denarii? Never then look for the matter itself in one
place, and progress towards it in another.
Where then is progress? If any of you, withdrawing himself
from externals, turns to his own will (proairesis) to exercise it and
to improve it by labor, so as to make it conformable to nature, elevated,
free, unrestrained, unimpeded, faithful, modest ; and if he has learned
that he who desires or avoids the things which are not in his power
can neither be faithful nor free, but of necessity he must change with
them and be tossed about with them as in a tempest, and of necessity
must subject himself to others who have the power to procure or
prevent what he desires or would avoid ; finally, when he rises in the
morning, if he observes and keeps these rules, bathes as a man of fidel-
ity, eats as a modest man; in like manner, if in every matter that
occurs he works out his chief principles (ta proagounwna) as the runnef
does with reference to running, and the trainer of the voice with refer-
ence to the voice — this is the man who truly makes progress, and this
is the man who has not travelled in vain. But if he has strained his
efforts to the practice of reading books, and labors only at this, and
has travelled for this, I tell him to return home immediately, and not
to neglect his affairs there; for this for which he has travelled is
nothing. But the other thing is something, to study how a man can
rid his life of lamentation and groaning, and saying, Woe to me, and
wretched that I am, and to rid it also of misfortune and disappoint-
ment, and to learn what death is, and exile, and prison, and poison,
that he may be able to say when he is in fetters, Dear Crito, if it is the
will of the gods that it be so, let it be so ; and not to say, Wretched
am I, an old man ; have I kept my grey hairs for this ? Who is it that
speaks thus? Do you think that I shall name some man of no repute
and of low condition? Does not Priam say this? Does not Oedipus
say this? Nay, all kings say it! For what else is tragedy than the
perturbations (patha) of men who value externals exhibited in this kind
of poetry? But if a man must learn by fiction that no external things
which are independent of the will concern us, for my part I should like
this fiction, by the aid of which I should live happily and undisturbed.
But you must consider for yourselves what you wish.
BPICTBTUS 401
What then does Chrysippus teach us ? The reply is, to know that
these tilings are not false, from which happiness comes and tranquillity
arises. Take my books, and you will learn how true and conformable
to nature are the things which make me free from perturbations. O
great good fortune ! O the great benefactor who points«out the way !
To Triptolemus all men have erected temples and altars, because he
gave us food by cultivation; but to him who discovered truth and
brought it to light and communicated it to all, not the truth which
shows us how to live, but how to live well, who of you for this reason
has built an altar, or a temple, or has dedicated a statue, or who wor-
ships God for this? Because the gods have given the vine, or wheat,
we sacrifice to them ; but because they have produced in the human
mind that fruit by which they designed to show us the truth which
relates to happiness, shall we not thank God for this?
WHAT IS THE NATURE OF THE GOOD?
God is beneficial. But the Good also is beneficial. It is consist-
ent then that where the nature of God is, there also the nature of the
good should be. What then is the nature of God ? Flesh ? Certainly
not. An estate in land? By no means. Fame? No. Is it intellig-
ence, knowledge, right reason? Yes. Herein then simply seek the
nature of the good ; for I suppose that you do not seek it in a plant.
No. Do you seek it in an irrational animal? No. If then you seek
it in a rational animal, why do you still seek it any where except in
the superiority of rational over irrational animals? Now plants have
not even the power of using appearances, and for this reason you do
not apply the term good to them. The good then requires the use of
appearances. Does it require this use only? For if you say that it
requires this use only, say that the good, and that happiness and unhap-
piness are in irrational animals also. But you do not say this, and you
do right; for if they possess even in the highest degree the use of
appearances, yet they have not the faculty of understanding the use
of appearances; and there is good reason for this, for they exist for
the purpose of serving others, and they exercise no superiority. For
the ass, I suppose, does not exist for any superiority over others. No ;
but because we had need of a back which is able to bear something;
and in truth we had need also of his being able to walk, and for this
reason he received also the faculty of making use of appearances, for
402 EPICTETU3
otherwise he would not have been able to walk. And here then the
matter stopped. For if he had also received the faculty of compre-
hending the use of appearances, it is plain that consistently with reason
he would not then have been subjected to us, nor would he have done
us these services, but he would have been equal to us and like to us.
Will you not then seek the nature of good in the rational animal ?
for if it is not there, you will not choose to say that it exists in any
other thing (plant or animal) . What then ? are not plants and animals
also the works of God ? They are ; but they are not superior things,
nor yet parts of the Gods. But you are a superior thing; you are a
portion separated from the deity ; you have in yourself a certain portion
of him. Why then are you ignorant of your own noble descent ? Why
do you not know whence you came ? will you not remember when you
are eating, who you are who eat and whom you feed ? When you are
in conjunction with a woman, will you not remember who you are who
do this thing? When you are in social intercourse, when you are
exercising yourself, when you are engaged in discussion, know you
not that you are nourishing a god, that you are exercising a god?
Wretch, you are carrying about a god with you, and you know it not.
Do you think that I mean some god of silver or of gold, and external ?
You carry him within yourself, and you perceive not that you are
polluting him by impure thoughts and dirty deeds. And if an image
of God were present, you would not dare to do any of the things which
you are doing: but when God himself is present within and sees all
and hears all, you are not ashamed of thinking such things and doing
such things, ignorant as you are of your own nature and subject to
the anger of God. Then why do we fear when we are sending a
young man from the school into active life, lest he should do anything
improperly, eat improperly, have improper intercourse with women;
and lest the rags in which he is wrapped should debase him, lest fine
garments should make him proud? This youth (if he acts thus) does
not know his own God: he knows not with whom he sets out (into
the world). But can we endure when he says 'I wish I had you
(God) with me.' Have you not God with you? and do you seek for
any other, when you have him? or will God tell you any thing else
than this? If you were a statue of Phidias, either Athena or Zeus,
you would think both of yourself and of the artist, and if you had any
understanding (power of perception) you would try to do nothing
unworthy of him who made you or of yourself, and try not to appear
in an unbecoming dress (attitude) to those who look on you. Butrnow
BPICTBTUS 401
because Zeus has made you, for this reason do you care not how you
shall appear? And yet is the artist (in the one case) like the artist
in the other? or the work in the one case like the other? And what
work of an artist, for instance, has in itself the faculties, which the
artist shows in making it? Is it not marble or bronze, or gold or
ivory? and the Athena of Phidias when she has once extended the
hand and received in it the figure of Victory stands in that attitude
for ever. But the works of God have power of motion, they breathe,
they have the faculty of using the appearances of things, and the power
of examining them. Being the work of such an artist do you dishonor
him? And what shall I say, not only that he made you, but also en-
trusted you to yourself and made you a deposit to yourself? Will you
not think of this too, but do you also dishonor your guardianship? But
if God had entrusted an orphan to you, would you thus neglect him?
He has delivered yourself to,your own care, and says, I had no one
fitter to intrust him to than yourself: keep him for me such as he is by
nature, modest, faithful, erect, unterrified, free from passion and per-
turbation. And then you do not keep him such.
But some will say, whence has this fellow got the arrogance which
he displays and these supercilious looks? — I have not yet so much
gravity as befits a philosopher ; for I do not yet feel confidence in what
I have learned and in what I have assented to: I still fear my own
weakness. Let me get confidence and then you shall see a countenance
such as I ought to have and an attitude such as I ought to have : then I
will show you the statue, when it is perfected, when it is polished.
What do you expect? a supercilious countenance? Does the Zeus at
Olympia lift up his brow? No, his look is fixed as becomes him who
is ready to say
Irrevocable is my word and shall not fail. — Iliad, i, 526.
Such will I show myself to you, faithful, modest, noble, free from per-
turbatoin — What, and immortal too, exempt from old age, and from
sickness? No, but dying as becomes a god, sickening as becomes a
god. This power I possess ; this I can do. But the rest I do not possess,
nor can I do. I will show the nerves (strength) of a philosopher. What
nerves are these? A desire never disappointed, an aversion which
never fails on that which it would avoid, a proper pursuit (horman), a
diligent purpose, an assent which is not rash. These you shall see.
404 EPICTETUS
WHAT THE BEGINNING OF PHILOSOPHY IS
The beginning of philosophy to him at least who enters on it in the
right way and by the door, is a consciousness of his own weakness and
inability about necessary things. For we come into the world with no
natural notion of a right angled triangle, or of a diesis (a quarter tone),
or of a half tone ; but we learn each of these things by a certain trans-
mission according to art ; and for this reason those who do not know
them, do not think that they know them. But as to good and evil, and
beautiful and ugly, and becoming and unbecoming, and happiness and
misfortune, and proper and improper, and what we ought to do and
what we ought not to do, whoever came into the world without hav-
ing an innate idea of them? Wherefore we all use these names, and
we endeavor to fit the preconceptions to the several cases (things) thus:
he has done well, he has not done well ; he has done as he ought, not as
he ought ; he has been unfortunate, he has been fortunate ; he is unjust,
he is just : who does not use these names? who among us defers the use
of them till he has learned them, as he defers the use of the words about
lines (geometrical figures) or sounds? And the cause of this is that
we came into the world already taught as it were by nature some things
on this matter (topon}, and proceeding from these we have added to
them self-conceit (oicsin). For why, a man says, do I not know the
beautiful and the ugly? Have I not the notion of it ? You have. Do I
not adapt its particulars? You do. Do I not adapt it properly? In
that lies the whole question ; and conceit is added here. For beginning
from these things which are admitted men proceed to that which is
matter of dispute by means of unsuitable adaptation ; for if they pos-
sessed this power of adaptation in addition to these things, you would
hinder them from being perfect? But now since you think that you
properly adapt the preconceptions to the particulars, tell me whence you
derive this (assume that you do so). Because I think so. But it does
not seem as to another, and he thinks that he also makes a proper
adaptation ; or does he not think so? He does think so. Is it possible
then that both of you can properly apply the preconceptions to things
about which you have contrary opinions? It is not possible. Can you
then show us anything better towards adapting the preconceptions be-
yond your thinking that you do? Does the madman do any other
things than the things which seem to him right? Is then this criterion
BPICTBTUS
sufficient for him also? It is not sufficient. Come then to something,
which is superior to seeming What is this ?
Observe, this is the beginning of philosophy, a perception of the
disagreement of men with one another, and an inquiry into the cause
of the disagreement, and a condemnation and distrust of that which
only "seems," and a certain investigation of that which "seems" whether
it "seems" rightly, and a discovery of some rule , as we have
discovered a balance in the determination of weights, and a carpenter's
rule (or square) in the case of straight and crooked things. — This is the
beginning of philosophy. Must we say that all things are right which
seem so to all ? And how is it possible that contradictions can be right ?
Not all then, but all which seem to us to be right. — How more to you
than those which seem right to the Syrians ? why more than what seem
right to the Egyptians ? why more than what seems right to me or to
any other man ? Not at all more. What then "seems" to every man is
not sufficient for determining what "is;" for neither in the case of
weights or measures are we satisfied with the bare appearance, but in
each case we have discovered a certain rule. In this matter then is
there no rule superior to what "seems"? And how is it possible that
the most necessary things among men should have no sign (mark),
and be incapable of being discovered ? There is then some rule. And
why then do we not seek the rule and discover it, and afterwards use it
without varying from it, not even stretching out the finger without it ?
For this, I think, is that which when it is discovered cures of their mad-
ness those who use mere "seeming1' as a measure, and misuse it ; so that
for the future proceeding from certain things (principles) known and
made clear we may use in the case of particular things the preconcep-
tions which are distinctly fixed.
What is the matter presented to us about which we are inquiring?
Pleasure (for example). Subject it to the rule, throw it into the bal-
ance. Ought the good to be such a thing that it is fit that we have con-
fidence in it? Yes. And in which we ought to confide? It ought to be.
Is it good to trust to any thing which is insecure? No. Is then pleasure
any thing secure? No. Take it then and throw it out of the scale, and
drive it far away from the place of good things. But if you are not
sharp-sighted, and one balance is not enough for you, bring another.
Is it fit to be elated over what is good? Yes. Is it proper then to be
elated over present pleasure? See that you do not say that it is proper;
but if you do, I shall then not think you worthy even of the balance.
Thus things are tested and weighed when the rules are ready. 'And to
406 MARCUS AURELIUS
philosophize is this, to examine and confirm the rules ; and then to use
them when they are known is the act of a wise and good man.
MARCUS AURELIUS
WE ARE apt to think that the greatest glory of Rome was under the
Republic. It is true that under the Republic Rome conquered the lands
around the Mediterranean, but this was an era of war. Her great era
of peace was under the Empire from 69 A. D. to 180 A. D., and
especially during the last eighty-five years of that period. The bounds
of the empire were then at their farthest extent, the Mediterranean
lands enjoyed the longest continuance of tranquility in their recorded
history, there were just emperors upon the throne and a just adminis-
tration of the most highly developed system of jurisprudence the world
had ever known, and the morals of the time must have been pure, for
Tacitus speaks of the extravagance of the hundred years since the
Civil war as being a thing of the past.
One of the best types of this period is Marcus Aurelius Antoninus.
He was the adopted son of Antoninus Pius, and succeeded him upon
the throne 161 A. D., reigning until 180 A. D. He was a stoic and
one of the noblest disciples of that philosophy. The passage from
him given below illustrates the influence that stoicism was capable of
exerting and actually did exert upon the most upright characters from
the days of Cato to the triumph of Christianity.
THOUGHTS
FROM my grandfather Verus [I learned] good morals and the
government of my temper.
2. From the reputation and remembrance of my father, modesty
and a manly character.
3. From my mother, piety and beneficence, and abstinence, not
only from evil deeds, but even from evil thoughts ; and further, sim-
plicity in my way of living, far removed from the habits of the rich.
4. From my great-grand father, not to have frequented public
schools, and to have had good teachers at home, and to know that on
such things a man should spend liberally.
5. From my governor, to be neither of the green nor of the blue
iusparty at the games in the Circus, nor a partizan either of the Par-
mularius or the Scutarius at the gladiators' fights ; from him too I
learned endurance of labour, and to want little, and to work with my
own hands, and not to meddle with other people's affairs, and not to
be ready to listen to slander.
6. From Diognetus, not to busy myself about trifling things, and
not to give credit to what was said by miracle- workers and jugglers
about incantations and the driving away of daemons and such things ;
and not to breed quails [for fighting], nor to give myself up passion-
ately to such things ; and to endure freedom of speech ; and to have
become intimate with philosophy ; and to have been a hearer, first of
Bacchius, then of Tandasis and Marcianus; and to have written dia-
logues in youth ; and to have desired a plank bed and skin, and what-
ever else of the kind belongs to the Grecian discipline.
7. From Rusticus I received the impression that my character
required improvement and discipline; and from him I learned not to
be led astray to sophistic emulation, nor to writing on speculative
matters, nor to delivering little hortatory orations, nor to showing my-
self off as a man who practices much discipline, or does benevolent
acts in order to make a display; and to abstain from rhetoric, and
poetry, and fine writing; and not to walk about in the house in my
outdoor dress, nor to do other things of the kind; and to write my
408 MARCUS AURBLIUS
letters with simplicity, like the letter which Rusticus wrote from
Sinuessa to my mother; and with respect to those who have offended
me by words, or done me wrong, to be easily disposed to be pacified
and reconciled, and to read carefully, and not to be satisfied with a
superficial understanding of a book; nor hastily to give my assent to
ithose who talk overmuch; and I an indebted to him for being ac-
quainted with the discourses of Epictetus, which he communicated to
me out of his own collection.
8. From Appollonius I learned freedom of will and undeviating
steadiness of purpose; and to look to nothing else, not even for a
moment, except to reason ; and to be always the same, in sharp pains,
on the occasion of the loss of a child, and in long illness; and to see
clearly in a living example that the same man can be both most
resolute and yielding, and not peevish in giving his instruction ; and to
have had before my eyes a man who clearly considered his experience
and his skill in expounding philosophical principles as the smallest of
his merits ; and from him I learned how to receive from friends what
are esteemed favours, without being either humbled by them or letting
them pass unnoticed.
9. From Sextus, a benevolent disposition, and the example of a
family governed in a fatherly manner, and the idea of living conform-
ably to nature; and gravity without affection, and to look carefully
after the interests of friends, and to tolerate ignorant persons, and to
those who form opinions without consideration : he had the power of
readily accommodating himself to all, so that intercourse with him was
more agreeable than any flattery ; and at the time he was most highly
venerated by those who associate with him: and he had the faculty
both of discovering and ordering, in an intelligent and methodical way,
the principles necessary for life; and he never showed anger or any
other passion, but was entirely free from passion, and also most affec-
tionate; and he could express approbation without noisy display, and
he possessed much knowledge without ostentation.
10. From Alexander the grammarian, to refrain from fault-find-
ing, and not in a reproachful way to chide those who uttered any bar-
barous or solecistic or strange-sounding expression; but dexterously
to introduce the very expression which ought to have been used, and
in the way of answer or giving confirmation, or joining in an inquiry
about the thing itself, not about the word, by some other fit suggestion.
11. From Fornto I learned to observe what envy, and duplicity,
and hypocrisy are in a tyrant, and that generally those among us who
MARCUS AURELIUS
are called Patricians are rather deficient in paternal affection.
12. From Alexander the Platonic, not frequently nor without
necessity to say to any one, or to write in a letter, that I have no
leisure ; nor continually to excuse the neglect of duties required by our
relation to those with whom we live, by alleging urgent occupations.
13. From Catulus, not to be indifferent when a friend finds fault,
even if he should find fault without reason, but to try to restore him
to his usual disposition ; and to be ready to speak well of teachers, as
it is reported of Domitius and Athenodotus ; and to love my children
truly.
14. From my brother Severus, to love my kin, and to love truth,
and to love justice; and through him I learned to know Thrasea,
Helvidius, Cato, Dion, Brutus ; and from him I received the idea of a
polity in which there is the same law for all, a polity administered with
regard to equal rights and equal freedom of speech, and the idea of a
kindly government which respects most of all the freedom of the gov-
erned ; I learned from him also consistency and undeviating steadiness
in my regard for philosophy ; and a disposition to do good, and to give
to others readily, and to cherish good hopes, and to believe that I am
loved by my friends ; and in him I observed no concealment, and that
his friends had no need to conjecture what he wished or did not wish,
but it was quite plain.
15. From Maximus I learned self-government, and not to be
led aside by anything ; and cheerfulness in all circumstances, as well as
in illness ; and a just mixture in the moral character of sweetness and
dignity, and to do what was set before me without complaining. I
observed that everybody believed that he thought as he spoke, and that
in all that he did he never had any bad intention ; and he never showed
amazement and surprise, and was never in a hurry, and never put off
doing a thing, nor was perplexed nor dejected, nor did he ever laugh
to disguise his vexation, nor, on the other hand, was he ever passionate
or suspicious. He was accustomed to do acts of beneficence, and was
ready to forgive, and was free from all falsehood; and he presented the
appearance of a man who could be diverted from right rather than of
a man who had been improved. I observed, too, that no man could
ever venture to think himself a better man. He had also the art of
being humorous in an agreeable way.
16. In my father I observed mildness of temper, and unchange-
able resolution in the things which he had determined after due
deliberation; and no vainglory in those things which men call honors;
7 3-26
410 MARCUS AURELIUS
and love of labor and perseverance ; and a readiness to listen to those who
had anything to propose for the common weal ; and undeviating firm-
ness in giving to every man according to his deserts ; and a knowledge
derived from experience of the occasions for vigorous action and for
remission. And I observed that he had overcome all passion for boys ;
and he considered himself no more than any other citizen; and he
released his friends from all obligation to sup with him or to attend
him of necessity when he went abroad, and those who had failed to
accompany him, by reason of any urgent circumstances, always found
him the same. I observed too his habit of careful inquiry in all matters
of deliberation, and his persistency, and that he never stopped his inves-
tigation through being satisfied with appearances that first present
themselves ; and that his disposition was to keep his friends, and not to
be too soon tired of them, nor yet to be extravagant in his affection ; and
to be satisfied on all occasions, and cheerful ; and to foresee things a
long way off, and to provide for the smallest without display ; and to be
ever watchful over the things which were necessary for the adminis-
tration of the empire, and to be a good manager of the expenditure, and
patiently to endure the blame which he got for such conduct ; and he
was neither superstitious with respect to the gods, nor did he court men
by gifts or by trying to please them, or by flattering the populace ; but
he showed sobriety in all things and firmness, and never any mean
thoughts or action, nor love of novelty. And the things which conduce
in any way to the commodity of life, and of which fortune gives an
abundant supply, he used without arrogance and without excusing him-
self; so that when he had them, he enjoyed them without affection, and
when he had them not, he did not want them. No one could ever say
of him that he was either a sophist or a [home-bred] flippant slave or
a pedant; but everyone acknowledged him to be a man ripe, perfect,
above flattery, able to manage his own and other men's affairs. Besides
this he honored those who were true philosophers, and he did not
reproach those who pretended to be philosophers, nor yet was he easily
led by them. He was also easy in conversation, and he made himself
agreeable without any offensive affection. He took a reasonable care
of his body's health, not as one who was greatly attached to life, nor
out of regard to personal appearance, nor yet in a careless way, but
so that, through his own attention, he very seldom stood in need of the
physician's art or of medicine or external applications. He was most
ready to give way without envy to those who possessed any particular
faculty, such as that of eloquence or knowledge of the law or of morals,
MARCUS AURELIUS , 1
or of anything else ; and he gave them his help, that each might enjoy
reputation according to his deserts ; and he always acted conformably
to the institutions of his country, without showing any affectation of
doing so. Further, he was not fond of change or unsteady, but he
loved to stay in the same places, and to employ himself about the same
things; and after his paroxysms of headache he came immediately
fresh and vigorous to his usual occupations. His secrets were not
many, but very few and very rare, and these only about public matters ;
and he showed prudence and economy in the exhibition of the public
spectacles and the construction of public buildings, his donations to
the people, and in such things, for he was a man who looked to what
ought to be done, not to the reputation which is got by a man's acts.
He did not take the bath at unreasonable hours : he was not fond of
building houses, nor curious about what he ate, nor about the texture
and colour of his clothes, nor about the beauty of his slaves. His
dress came from Lorium, his villa on the coast, and from Lanuvium
generally. We know how he behaved by the toll-collector at Tusculum
who asked his pardon ; and such was all his behavior. There was in
him nothing harsh, nor implacable, nor violent, nor, as one may say,
anything carried to the sweating point; but he examined all things
severally, as if he had abundance of time, and without confusion, in an
orderly way, vigorously and consistently. And that might be applied
to him which is recorded of Socrates, that he was able both to abstain
from, and to enjoy, those things which many are too weak to abstain
from, and cannot enjoy without excess. But to be strong enough
both to bear the one and to be sober in the other is the mark of a
man who has a perfect and invincible soul, such as he showed in the
illness of Maximus.
17. To the gods I am indebted for having good grandfathers,
good parents, a good sister, good teachers, good associates, good kins-
men and friends, nearly everything good. Further, I owe it to the
gods that I was not hurried into any offence against any of them,
though I had a disposition which, if opportunity had offered, might
have led me to do something of this kind; but, through their favour,
there never was such a concurrence of circumstances as put me to the
trial. Further, I am thankful to the gods that I was no longer brought
up with my grandfather's concubine, and that I preserved the flower of
my youth, and that I did not make proof of my virility before the
proper season, but even deferred the time; that I was subjected to a
ruler and a father who was able to take away all pride from me, ami
412 MARCUS AUREL1US
to bring me to the knowledge that it was possible for a man to live
in a palace without wanting either guards or embroidered dresses, or
torches and statues, and such-like show ; but that it is in such a man's
power to bring himself very near to the fashion of a private person,
without being for this reason either meaner in thought, or more remiss
in action, with respect to the things which must be done for the public
interest in a manner that befits the ruler. I thank the gods for giving
me such a brother, who was able by his moral character to rouse me
to vigilance over myself, and who, at the same time, pleased me by his
respect and affection; that my children have not been stupid nor
deformed in body; that I did not make more proficiency in rhetoric,
poetry, and the other studies, in which I should perhaps have been
completely engaged, if I had seen that I was making progress in
them ; that I made haste to place those who brought me up in the
station of honour, which they seemed to desire, without putting them
off with the hope of my doing it sometime after, because they were
then still young; that I knew Appollonius, Rusticus, Maximus ; that
I received clear and frequent impressions about living according to
nature, and what kind of a life that is, sc that, so far as depended on
the gods, and their gifts, and help, and inspirations, nothing hindered
me from forthwith living according to nature, though I still fall short
of it through my own fault, and through not observing the admonitions
of the gods, and, I may almost say, their direct instructions ; that my
body has held out so long in such a kind life ; that I never touched
either Benedicta or Theodotus, and that, after having fallen into
amatory passions, I was cured ; and, though I was often out of humor
with Rusticus, I never did anything of which I had occasion to repent ;
that, though it was my mother's fate to die young, she spent the last
years of her life with me; that, whenever I wished help any man in
his need, or on any other occasion, I was never told that I had not the
means of doing it; and that to myself the same necessity never hap-
pened, to receive anything from another; that I have such a wife, so
obedient, and so affectionate, and so simple; that I had abundance of
good masters for my children ; and that remedies have been shown to
me by dreams, both others, and against bloodspitting and giddiness
(text corrupt), and that, when I had an inclination to philosophy, I
did not waste my time on writers [of histories] , or in the resolution of
syllogisms, or occupy myself about the investigation of appearances
in the heavens ; for all theso things require the help of the gods and
fortune. •
MARCUS AUKHLIUS
Among the Quadi at the Granua.
II.
Begin the morning by saying to thyself, I shall meet with the busy-
body, the ungrateful, arrogant, deceitful, envious, unsocial. All these
things happen to them by reason of their ignorance of what is good and
«.vil. But I who have seen the nature of the good that it is beautiful,
and of the bad that it is ugly, and the nature of him who does wrong,
that it is akin to me, not [only] of the same blood or seed, but that it
participates in [the same] intelligence and [the same] portion of the
duinity, I can neither be injured by any of them, for no one can fix on
me what is ugly, nor can I be angry with my kinsman, nor hate him.
For we are made for co-operation, like feet, hands, like eyelids, like
the rows of the lower and upper teeth. To act against one another
then is contrary to nature; and it is acting against one another to be
vexed and to turn away.
2. Whatever this is that I am, it is a little flesh and breath, and
•the ruling part. Throw away thy books; no longer distract thyself:
it is not allowed ; but as if thou wast now dying, despise the flesh ; it is
blood and bones and a network, a contexture of nerves, veins, and
arteries. See the breath also, what kind of a thing it is, air, and not
always the same, but every moment sent out and again sucked in.
The third then is the ruling part: consider thus: Thou art an old
man ; no longer let this be a slave, no longer be pulled by the strings
like a puppet to unsocial movements, no longer be either dissatisfied
with thy present lot, or shrink from the future.
3. All that is from the gods is full of providence. That which is
from fortune is not separated from nature or without an interweaving
and involution with the things which are ordered by providence. From
thence all things flow ; and there is besides necessity, and that which is
for the advantage of the whole universe, of which thou art a part. But
this is good for every part of nature which the nature of the whole
brings, and what serves to maintain this nature. Now the universe is
preserved, as by changes of the elements so by the changes of things
compounded of the elements. Let these principles be enough for thee,
let them always be fixed opinions. But cast away the thirst after books,
that thou mayest not die murmuring, but cheerfully, truly, and from
thy heart thankful to the gods.
4. Remember how long thou hast been putting off these things,
and how often thou hast received an opportunity from the gods, and
414 MARCUS AURELIUS
yet dost not use it. Thou must now at last perceive of what universe
thou art a part, and of what administrator of the universe thy exist-
ence is an efflux, and that a limit of time is fixed for thee, which if thou
dost not use for clearing away the clouds from thy mind, it will go and
thou wilt go, and it will never return.
5. Every moment think steadily as a Roman and a man to do
what thou hast in hand with perfect and simple dignity, and feeling
of affection, and freedom, and justice; and to give thyself relief from
all other thoughts. And thou wilt give thyself relief, if thou dost every
act of thy life as if it were the last, laying aside all carelessness and
passionate aversion from the commands of reason, and all hypocrisy,
and self-love, and discontent with the portion which has been given
thee. Thou seest how few the things are, the which if a man lays hold
of, he is able to live a life which flows in quiet, and is like the existence
of the gods ; for the gods on their part will require nothing more from
him who observes these things.
6. Do wrong to thyself, do wrong to thyself, my soul ; but thou
wilt no longer have the opportunity of honouring thyself. Every man's
life is sufficient. But thine is nearly finished, though thy soul reverences
not itself, but places thy felicity in the souls of others.
7. Do the things external which fall upon thee distract thee?
Give thyself time to learn something new and good, and cease to be
whirled around. But then thou must also avoid being carried about
the other way. For those too are triflers who have wearied them-
selves in life by their activity, and yet have no object to which to direct
ever}' movement, and, in a word, all their thoughts.
8. Through not observing what is in the mind of another a man
has seldom been seen to be unhappy; but those who do not observe
the movements of their own minds must of necessity be unhappy.
9. This thou must always bear in mind, what is the nature of the
whole, and what is my nature, and how is this related to that, and what
kind of a part is it of what kind of a whole ; and that there is no one
who hinders thee from always doing and saying the things which are
according to the nature of which thou art a part.
10. Theophrastus, in his comparison of bad acts — such a com-
parison as one would make in accordance with the common notions of
mankind — says, like a true philosopher, that the offenses which are
committed through desire are more blamable than those which are
committed through anger. For he who is excited by anger seems to
turn away from reason with a certain pain and unconscious ccntrac-
MARCUS AURBLIUS 415
tion ; but he who offends through desire, being overpowered by pleas-
ure, seems to be in a manner more intemperate and more womanish
in his offences. Rightly then, and in a way worthy of philosophy, he
said that the offence which is committed with pleasure is more blamable
than that which is committed with pain ; and on the whole the one is
more like a person who has been first wronged and through pain is
compelled to be angry ; but the other is moved by his own impulse to
do wrong, being carried toward doing something by desire.
11. Since it is possible that thou mayest depart from life this
very moment, regulate every act and thought accordingly. But to go
away from among men, if there are gods, is not a thing to be afraid
of, for the gods will not involve thee in evil ; but if indeed they do not
exist, or if they have no concern about human affairs, what is it to me
to live in a universe devoid of gods or devoid of providence? But in
truth they have put all the means in man's power to enable him to
fall into real evils. And as to the rest, if there was anything evil, they
would have provided for this also, that it should be altogether in a
man's power not to fall into it. Now that which does not make a man
worse, how can it make a man's life worse? But neither through
ignorance, nor having the knowledge, but not the power to guard against
or correct these things, is it possible that the nature of the universe has
overlooked them ; nor is it possible that it has made so great a mistake,
either through want of power or want of skill, that good and evil should
happen indiscriminately to the good and the bad. But death certainly,
and life, honour and dishonour, pain and pleasure, all these things
equally happen to good men and bad, being things which make us
neither better nor worse. Therefore they are neither good nor evil.
12. How quickly all things disappear, in the universe the bodies
themselves, but in time the remembrance of them ; what is the nature of
all sensible things, and particularly those which attract with the bait of
pleasure or terrify with pain, or are noised abroad by vapoury fame : how
worthless, and contemptible, and sordid, and perishable, and dead they
are — all this it is the part of the intellectual faculty to observe. To
observe too who these are whose opinions and voices give reputation ;
what death is, and the fact that, if a man looks at it in itself, and by the
abstractive power of reflection resolves into their parts all the things
which present themselves to the imagination in it, he will then consider
it to be nothing else than an operation of nature, he is a child. This,
however, is not only an operation of nature, but is also a thing which
conduces to the purposes of nature. To observe too how near man
410 MARCUS AUREL1US
comes to the deity, and by what part of him, and when this part of
man is so disposed.
13. Nothing is more wretched than a man who traverses every-
thing in a round, and pries into the things beneath the earth, as the
poet says, and seeks by conjecture what is in the minds of his neigh-
bours, without perceiving that it is sufficient to attend to the daemon
within him, and to reverence it sincerely. And reverence of the daemon
consists in keeping it pure from passion and thoughtlessness, and dis-
satisfaction with what comes from gods and men. For the things from
the gods merit veneration for their excellence ; and the things from men
should be dear to us by reason of kinship; and sometimes even, in a
manner, they move our pity by reason of men's ignorance of good and
bad; this defect being not less than that which deprives us of the
power of distinguishing things that are white and black.
14. Though thou shouldst be going to live three thousand years,
and as many times ten thousand years, still remember' that no man
loses any other life than this which he now lives, nor lives any other
than this which he now loses. The longest and shortest are thus
brought to the same. For the present is the same to all, though what
perishes is not the same; and so that which is lost appears to be a
mere moment. For a man cannot lose either the past or the future:
for what a man has not, how can any one take this from him? These
two things then thou must bear in mind ; the one, that all things from
eternity are of like forms and come around in a circle, and that it makes
no difference whether a man shall see the same things during a hundred
years or two hundred, or an infinite time; and the second, that the
longest liver and he who will die soonest lose just the same. For the
present is the only thing of which a man can be deprived, if it is true
that this is the only thing which he has, and that a man cannot lose a
thing if he has it not.
15. Remember that all is opinion. For what was said by the
Cynic Monimus is manifest: and manifest too is the use of what is
said, if a man receives what may be got out of it as far as it is true.
16. The soul of man does violence to itself, first of all, when it
becomes an abscess and, as it were, a tumor on the universe, so far as it
can. For to be vexed at anything which happens is a separation of
ourselves from nature, in some part of which the natures of all other
things are contained. In the next place, the soul does violence to itself
when it turns away from any man, or even moves toward him with the
intention of injuring, such as are the souls of those who are ang»y. In
MARCUS AURELIUS 417
the third place, the soul does violence to itself when it is overpowered
by pleasure or pain. Fourthly, when it plays a part, and does or says
anything insincerely and untruly. Fifthly when it allows any act of
its own and any movement to be without an aim, and does anything
thoughtlessly and without considering what it is, it being the right that
even the smallest things to be done with reference to an end ; and the
end of rational animals is to follow the reason and the law of the most
ancient city and polity.
17. Of human life the time is a point, and the substance is a flux,
and the perception dull, and the composition of the whole body subject
to putrefaction, and the soul a whirl, and fortune hard to divine, and
fame a thing devoid of judgment. And, to say all in a word, every-
thing which belongs to the body is a stream, and what belongs to the
soul is a dream and vapour, and life is a warfare and a stranger's
sojourn, and after-fame is oblivion. What then is that which is able
to conduct a man ? One thing and only one, philosophy. But this con-
sists in keeping the daemon within a man free from violence and
unharmed, superior to pains and pleasures, doing nothing without a
purpose, nor yet falsely and with hypocrisy, not feeling the need of
another man's doing or not doing anything ; and besides, accepting all
that happens, and all that is allotted, as coming from thence, wherever
it is, from whence he himself came ; and, finally, waiting for death with
a cheerful mind, as being nothing else than a dissolution of the ele-
ments of which every living being is compounded. But if there is no
harm to the elements themselves in each continually changing into
another, why should a man have any apprehensions about the change
and dissolution of all the elements? For it is according to nature, and
nothing is evil which is according to nature.
This in Caruntum.
TRANSLATION OF GEORGE LONG,
V 3-27
THATCHER, OLIVER J.
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